Matthew Morrison has taken matters into his own hands and addressed allegations he was ousted from his judging position on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ last week for sending “inappropriate messages” to a female contestant. The former Glee star had previously said in a statement that his departure from the competition series was down to him not following production protocols during the taping of Season 17 auditions. But in a report, per People, the father-of-two had reportedly shared ill-suited messages with a contestant, who felt so uncomfortable by the social media exchange, she reported the matter to producers, resulting in Matthew’s firing.
But on Thursday, the 43-year-old took to his official Instagram account and posted a one-minute clip to defend himself from what had been said about him in the media as he read out the message he sent to the contestant which sparked an investigation and later led to his exit from SYTYCD. Matthew stressed he had nothing to hide, which was why he was addressing the situation on his Instagram page in view of his 939k followers. He wrote, “It’s really unfortunate that I really have to defend myself and my family against blatantly untrue statements made anonymously, but I have nothing to hide.”
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What Did Matthew Morrison Write To The Contestant?
“In the interest of transparency, I will read to you the one message that I wrote to a dancer on the show: ‘Hey it’s Matthew, if you don’t mind, would love to get your number and talk [about] some things.’ The end.’ I sent this because this dancer and I share mutual respect for a choreographer that I’ve known for over 20 years and I was trying to help her get a job as a choreographer on the show.” Matthew ended his message by saying that he wishes the new contestants and his fellow judges all the best as the new season continues production without him.
As previously revealed, Matthew’s departure was first announced last week when he claimed to have violated competition production protocols, though at the time it had not been disclosed what they were. He had been filming the audition rounds for the show when executives informed him he would not be welcomed back following an investigation that FOX conducted after the contestant made her complaint.
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It should be noted that sources for People to say that while the messages were deemed “inappropriate,” Matthew and the unidentified contestant “didn’t have sex,” nor did they ever meet up in person. “They didn’t have sex, but he reached out to her through flirty direct messages on social media,” the insider said.
“She felt uncomfortable with his line of comments and went to producers, who then got Fox involved. He was fired after they did their own investigation.”