Dancing on Ice 2013: Oona King admits "it was me who tripped Mark Hanretty up"
The Labour peer reveals that she caused her pro skater's dislocated shoulder after taking an "extra step" on the ice
Oona King, the Labour peer who was eliminated from Dancing on Ice last night, has claimed full responsibility for her skating partner Mark Hanretty’s dislocated shoulder, admitting “it was me who tripped him up.”
Viewers of ITV’s celebrity skating competition were shocked on Sunday evening when Hanretty fell on the ice during the show’s skate off and dislocated his shoulder live on ITV.
But Baroness King made an appearance on ITV’s Daybreak this morning and claimed that the skater’s injury came about because she'd "taken an extra step" on the ice.
“I just have to let the nation understand that it was me who tripped him up,” she said.
“He’s a pro-skater; he did nothing wrong. I didn’t know what happened, he was just on the floor but I’d taken an extra step - you just need to put one foot out of step on the ice and...”
The former Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow said that seeing her partner’s dislocated shoulder had left her “traumatised” and barely able to resume her routine with Hanretty after he shrugged off his injury and agreed to continue performing.
“I really wanted to do it but after seeing his shoulder come out I was just kind of basically traumatised,” revealed the politician.
“I was scared to lean on him, to push on him, my legs had turned gone to jelly - I mean it was just quite scary.”
Oona also joked that she had somehow jinxed proceedings by remarking before the show that it was “amazing” that no-one, ‘til then, had fallen on the ice.
She said: “I was never scared of, you know, falling on my head and cracking my skull because I knew Mark wouldn’t let me, but I was very scared of falling flat on my face on TV.
“And in fact I said to Mark before we went on, 'God it’s amazing no-one, none of us yet has actually fallen on the ice', and then I just went and cut his legs from underneath him. I feel beyond devastated about that because he’s such an amazing guy and such a beautiful skater is the other thing.
“I loved learning to ice skate so much I’m sad I didn’t get the chance to skate as well as I know I could have but it’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”
Dancing on Ice will return to TV this Sunday (6:15pm, ITV) and see remaining celebs Matt Lapinskas, Samia Ghadie, Beth Tweddle, Anthea Turner, Keith Chegwin, Luke Campbell, Shayne Ward, Joe Pasquale and Gareth Thomas all skating for their survival.
