Strictly’s Thomas Skinner says he received death threats after JD Vance meeting

Strictly Come Dancing star Thomas Skinner has said he received death threats after he met with US vice president JD Vance.

It comes after Skinner, who was a candidate on the Apprentice in 2019, admitted cheating on his wife just weeks after their wedding in an interview with the Sun.

Skinner, 34, has previously drawn strong criticism for X posts saying it is “not far-right” to be “flying your flag and loving your country”, and complaining “it ain’t safe out there any more” in London, saying the city is “hostile” and “tense”.

Skinner befriended US President Donald Trump’s number two on social media platform X and later met him for a barbecue and drinks before posting a photo of them online.

He told the Sun: “Since I posted that picture I’ve had loads of death threats. People saying they want me dead, saying I am this political figure that I’m actually not.

“I actually really ain’t. I couldn’t tell you what’s going on in the world right now.

“Now the left seems to be attacking me every day on social media. The right seems to see me as this figurehead and it’s all been a bit much for me, if I’m honest with you.

“I was getting death threats and people calling me controversial. I was thinking, what have I ever done? What have I ever said that’s controversial?

“When you actually go through my tweets, apart from saying that knife crime is bad in London, yeah?

“I’m not this political figurehead that people believe that’s got my hand. I’ve had loads of death threats over the years, you know.

“I didn’t see it as anything more than a barbecue, if I’m honest with you. But I’ve been turned into this political figure that I’m actually not.”

Reflecting on the meeting, he added: “I was very nervous about it, I didn’t know what to wear. When I arrived he literally was like, ‘Why have you got a suit on?’

“He was actually a normal bloke. We spoke about English cheese being so much better than American cheese, West Ham United and how they call football ‘soccer’.”

He continued: “There was a pub in the town, and Jay wanted to go to a traditional English pub, but he knew by going to this pub it would obviously have to shut, because I’ve never seen so many security guys in my life… a proper entourage… he didn’t want it to affect the locals.

“So he asked the pub if they would kindly – he paid them a lot of money – bring some of their staff to cook at the place, and they did, they actually left this beautiful pub in the Cotswolds, they’d come round to the garden, and they cooked this fantastic spread, it was steaks, kebabs, halloumi, honestly it was unreal. Everyone was really friendly.”

Joking, he added: “When Trump comes he might invite me to a BBQ too.”

In spite of the backlash, Skinner said he does not regret the meeting and added: “I don’t regret it, I am a normal bloke and it was an amazing opportunity.

“Put yourself in my shoes. What would you do? You’re a normal person. And, I’ve been given this opportunity to sit with the vice president of the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America. To me that was, ‘Wow’.

“And I would have gone, whether it was the leader of France, Germany, I think to sit there and learn, and experience that, whether you agree with him politically or not, it wasn’t about that for me, it was literally to say, ‘I’ve sat there and met the vice president of the United States of America’.”

“Even when JD Vance sent me a DM, he was like, ‘Look I love your energy, keep it up, I love seeing the high energy and the positivity you spread’.

“Which is literally all I do, all I do is share videos of me having a roast dinner, and do a morning video to say, ‘Have a good day’, because I know what it’s like to wake up and feel like you can’t do this. I’ve been there, and that’s why I won’t ever give up spreading the positivity.”

Skinner, who is one of 15 celebrities taking part in Strictly this year, apologised on Wednesday for picking up a journalist’s phone and walking out of a Strictly press event midway through.

The reality TV star said his departure from the event was not related to the BBC dancing show, and claimed he did so as he had seen messages about his past on the reporter’s phone.