During their time on Strictly Come Dancing, Jay McGuiness and his professional dance partner Aliona Vilani became the subject of romance rumours. But speaking the morning after his Strictly win, Jay, 25, has cleared up the speculation about his love life and addressed his close relationship with the Russian beauty.
"When you dance with someone you have to create romance sometimes and people then want to see that almost," Jay told Lorraine Kelly on her chat show.
"But a lot of the time the papers create it and that sort of thing, but I think no matter what I say people will write whatever they want to write."
"You get a best friend out of Strictly," said Jay McGuiness
The boy band singer added: "We did something that so few people do together, I genuinely will treasure it forever.
"Honestly, you spend that many hours together you talk about every single thing, like the most trivial and the most pretentious, literally everything. No matter what happens you get a best friend out of Strictly."
Jay was crowned Strictly's winner on Sunday evening, after beating fellow contestants Kellie Bright and Georgia May Foote. As he was presented with the coveted glitterball trophy, The Wanted star said: "I feel spaced out and really weird."
The singer said his Strictly experience was "one of the most special things I've ever done with the most special person"
Turning to Aliona, Jay paid tribute to his married dance partner and said: "You deserve it so much. I just think it was one of the most special things I've ever done with the most special person. Anyone who watched us and helped us get here… Thank you."
From the very start of the show, Jay and Aliona struck up a close friendship. The pair have become inseparable and have been pictured holding hands and cosying up to each other on more than one occasion while out and about.
Aliona also features heavily on Jay's Instagram account and the 31-year-old has met some of Jay's family. "Weekly pub visit with family and best friends keeping Ali and me stress free. #justkeepdancing," the singer captioned a group photo two weeks ago.
Jay and Aliona have been hanging out together outside of rehearsal time
Some started to speculate that the dancers were more than just friends, and were curious to see if Jay and Aliona had been hit by the so-called Strictly curse. Aliona, who is the only professional to have won the show twice, married businessman Vincent Kavanagh last year.
"Vincent often comes in to watch us train and then all three of us go for a bite to eat," Jay has recently told the Sunday Mirror. "He's a really cool guy. Within an hour of meeting him, I hoped we would become great friends – and we have. We're all as thick as thieves together."