Wynne Evans insists he’s not a misogynist follow Strictly scandal

Opera singer Wynne Evans has hit back at claims that he’s a misogynist after he was forced to apologise for using “inappropriate” language during a Strictly tour photocall.

The Welsh tenor, known for his Go.Compare insurance adverts and BBC Radio Wales show, was on tour with the live show after participating in the BBC One programme with Katya Jones last year.

According to the Mail On Sunday, Evans allegedly made sexual remarks about Janette Manrara during a cast photocall.

Evans issued a statement apologising and said: “I’ve agreed with the BBC that I’ll take some time out from my radio show and the Strictly Live tour, as well as my other public commitments, to prioritise my wellbeing.

“I am deeply sorry for the pain my inappropriate actions have caused, and plan to take this time for self-reflection.”

Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, he claimed he had not seen the statement apologising for the remark.

He told the newspaper the comment was not sexual or directed to Manrara but was a nickname for fellow contestant, EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick.

He said: “I didn’t see the statement. Old Spit-roast Boy was a nickname for Jamie Borthwick. I’m not a bad guy, I’m not a misogynist, I’m not any of these things.”

“It’s been heartbreaking. ‘Spit-roast boy’ was a nickname we all gave Jamie Borthwick because he could contort his legs over his head like a spit-roast chicken.

“But it absolutely wasn’t meant sexually – and the fact I used ‘boy’, all right it’s nuanced, but it shows I was talking to Jamie, not Janette.

“And of course, your natural reaction is, if you’re told you’ve offended someone, you say, ‘God, I’m so sorry’.

“And so I went, ‘I’m so sorry’. And that was taken as a formal apology, so the press team issued a statement. I didn’t see it.

“When I read the apology within the context of the story as it had been written, I was absolutely horrified.

“It’s been a truly awful past few months, having to keep my counsel and let the narrative that I’m some sort of weirdo run.

“I’m not a misogynist, I’m not any of these things.”

Evans was also criticised when a video showed him place his hand on professional dancer Jones’s waist, which she moved, during last year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition.

He claimed this was a “body language experiment” from TikTok that Jones had suggested, and added: “We did it, we laughed, we went downstairs to make-up and my phone explodes and I look at it… and let me tell you the body language experiment worked.”

Later Evans and Jones apologised claiming that it had been a “joke”.

The singer performed in the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Of The Opera and also won 2023’s Celebrity MasterChef.

He was eliminated during the Blackpool week of Strictly last year.

BBC Studios, which produces the Strictly tour, said: “Any statement issued on Wynne Evans’ behalf was fully approved by Wynne Evans. Wynne posted his own statement on Instagram in which he apologised.”

Billy Joel’s daughter speaks out after singer’s health diagnosis

Billy Joel’s daughter Alex Ray Joel has shared a touching message for her father following his diagnosis with a rare brain disorder.

The “Piano Man” star, 76, announced on Friday (23 May) that he was cancelling all scheduled concerts after being diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), a condition where excess cerebrospinal fluid builds up in the brain ventricles.

It is described by the NHS as an uncommon and poorly understood condition that typically affects people over the age of 60.

Joel had been due to perform across the US and at two UK dates this year. However, a statement from his representatives said recent performances had been exacerbating his condition, leading to “problems with hearing, vision and balance”.

On Saturday (24 May), Alexa, 39, paid tribute to her father on Instagram, captioning her post: “We love you and we got you, Pop!”

“I just wanted to thank you all for the beautiful outpouring of love and support amid the recent news of my father’s health diagnosis,” Alexa, whom Joel shares with his ex-wife, Christie Brinkley, continued.

“My dad is the strongest and most resilient man I’ve ever known,” she said, “and he’s entirely committed to making a full recovery with ongoing physical-therapy treatments as he continues to regain his strength.

“The genuine care, empathy, and concern from everyone means so much to him… it means a lot to me, too.”

She then quoted lyrics from “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)”, a song Joel wrote for her that featured in his 1993 album, River of Dreams.

“Someday we’ll all be gone/ But lullabies go on and on/ They never die/ That’s how you and I will be.”

Brinkley herself shared a moving message to Joel from her own Instagram account, where she included a clip of one of his recent concerts, where she filmed Alexa singing along to his track “You May Be Right”.

“Dear Billy,” she wrote in the caption, “The whole Brinkley gang is sending you lots of love and good wishes for a full and speedy recovery.”

She added: “I was looking for some cute photos of you and Alexa to send you, when I came across this clip from a recent concert.”

The footage had made her laugh, she said, “but it also reminded me of all the joy you create, and all the sensational singalongs you’ve led… you turn an arena of strangers into a living room full of friends as we all sway in unison.”

She concluded: “I’m sure I’m speaking for everyone in that room when I say please take good care of yourself, we all want you back in that white hot spotlight, you’re OUR piano man and we’re always in the mood for your melodies. And we all hope you’re feeling alright! We love you, the kids, me and an arena or two!”

Joel’s representative said he is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during the recovery period.

“He is grateful for the support from fans during this time and looks forward to the day when he can once again take the stage,” the spokesperson said.

The statement ended with a direct quote from Joel, who said: “I’m sincerely sorry to disappoint our audience, and thank you for understanding.”

F1 Monaco GP LIVE: Norris starts on pole as Hamilton hit with penalty

Lando Norris banished his qualifying blues to claim pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The British driver set a new record around the streets of Monte Carlo to beat local hero Charles Leclerc to pole by 0.109 seconds. Norris, who has bemoaned his qualifying slip-ups throughout the season, put it together at the death to clinch his first pole since the season-opener in Melbourne.

Oscar Piastri, who leads McLaren team-mate Norris by 13 points at the top of the championship standings, will start Sunday’s race from third. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton qualified in fourth but was hit with a post-session three-place grid drop for impeding Max Verstappen.

As a result, Verstappen, who clinched his second win of the season at Imola last weekend to close to within 22 points of Piastri, will start in fourth despite qualifying in fifth.

Follow live coverage of the Monaco GP with The Independent

Record-breaking cyberattacks could be prelude to the ‘big one’

Standing aboard an aircraft carrier in New York’s Hudson River in 2012, US defense secretary Leon Panetta warned of a looming attack that would “paralyse and shock the nation”. It would not come via air, land or sea, he said, but through the internet.

“A cyberattack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack on 9/11,” he claimed, citing a recent spate of high-profile hacks that had exposed the fragility of an increasingly digitised critical infrastructure.

“They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail trains loaded with lethal chemicals,” he continued. “They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country.”

His speech marked a new era of cyberwarfare and a fundamental change in the way countries and corporations approached cybersecurity. It was also the first time such a senior figure had publicly recognised the existential threat of hackers, who were capable of pulling off what would come to be known as “the big one”.

The dire scenarios Panetta anticipated have since been the plots of Hollywood movies and TV shows – including Netflix’s 2025 blockbuster Zero Day – yet no real-world attacks have thankfully come close.

Cyber incursions have instead been far more insidious, typically focused on individuals or organisations rather than entire industries. In recent months, however, they have been ramping up to record levels.

Tens of millions of Brits have already been directly caught up in major hacks this year, with millions more impacted indirectly through site outages, loss of service, or even empty supermarket shelves. This week, more than a million Legal Aid users reportedly had their data exposed, which followed a breach of up to 10 million Marks & Spencer customers and 20 million Co-op members.

Data stolen from the attacks included the usual personal details – names, dates of birth, addresses – but also information that is potentially far more harmful, including criminal records and details of domestic abuse victims.

The attacks follow a broader trend of increasingly severe incidents, with several cybersecurity firms reporting a record number of ransomware attacks in the first quarter of 2025. Research from Check Point revealed that organisations were being hit with roughly 2,000 cyberattacks every week in the first three months of the year – up nearly 50 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Security researchers have attributed the sudden spike in attacks to a confluence of conditions, with some warning that the situation will likely become even more dire over the coming months.

“The surge is driven by a perfect storm of factors: the rapid digitisation of industries, increased reliance on third-party systems, and the rise of financially motivated, highly organised cybercriminal groups,” Spencer Starkey, an executive at cybersecurity firm SonicWall, tells The Independent.

“It is likely to get worse before it gets better. Attackers are innovating faster than defenders, and many organisations are still playing catch-up.”

Another reason behind the recent escalation is that hacking toolkits have become much cheaper and easier to use. Sophisticated tools that can be used to carry out massive campaigns can be purchased on the dark web or through apps like Telegram for as little as $50. Some tools, like the malicious chatbot WormGPT, are even found freely online, and can be used to conduct widespread fraud and social engineering attacks.

Their prevalence is reflected in figures released last month by fraud prevention service Cifas, which reported a record number of cases of identity fraud in the UK. In some cases, victims lost hundreds of thousands of pounds to scammers.

Another threat, which resurfaced in a formidable way this week, comes in the form of a new botnet capable of causing unprecedented online carnage. One Google researcher described the tool as powerful enough to “kill most companies”, after hackers demonstrated its capabilities in a 45-second attack on the website of cybercrime investigator Brian Krebs.

The botnet consists of millions of hijacked devices – ranging from smart fridges to security cameras – that can be instructed to perform distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on websites and online services, overwhelming them with web traffic and knocking them offline.

Named Aisuru, the botnet is roughly 10 times more powerful than the Mirai botnet that ripped through the internet in 2016. According to Krebs, Aisuru could soon launch “crippling digital assaults that few web destinations can withstand”.

Security researchers have already seen cybercriminals advertising Aisuru as a DDoS-for-hire service within illicit forums, costing as little as $150 per day to use.

All of these trends, combined with infinitely evolving vulnerabilities, could well be a harbinger for a cyber catastrophe akin to “the big one”, experts warn.

“It’s not hyperbole,” says Phil Tonkin, the field chief technology officer at Dragos, which provides cybersecurity for national infrastructure. The organisation’s most recent report on industrial ransomware, published on Wednesday, revealed a significant increase in ransomware incidents against critical sectors in the first quarter of the year.

“As [computer] systems become more connected, we’re seeing routine ransomware events have outsized operational impacts. A ‘big one’ might not be dramatic – it might just be widespread failure from an attack that hits the wrong system at the wrong time.”

It is a sentiment shared by SonicWall’s Spencer Starkey, who notes that the cyber landscape is almost unrecognisable from when Defence Secretary Panetta first sounded the alarm about an impending digital disaster.

“The threat of a large-scale attack on critical infrastructure is no longer hypothetical,” he says. “The techniques used in retail and legal sector breaches – identity compromise, ransomware, lateral movement – are exactly the kinds of methods that could disrupt healthcare, utilities, or government systems.

“While we haven’t yet seen a ‘black swan’ cyber event at scale in the UK, the trajectory of these attacks suggests that it’s a matter of when, not if.”