Paul Daniels’ son sparked a homophobia row on Twitter, as he defended his stepmother Debbie McGee’s performance on Strictly Come Dancing.
Martin Daniels was responding to viewers’ tweets online, after she performed a samba to a medley of Spice Girls songs.
Debbie, 59, was dressed as Ginger Spice in a version of her famous Union Jack dress and ginger wig for the dance on Saturday night.
Her performance earned her two nines from judges Shirley Ballas and Bruno Tonioli, but some fans weren’t as keen.
And stepson Martin, 54, waded in to the comments from everyone who criticised Debbie.
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He disagreed with people who discussed Debbie’s previous dance experience, and insulted anyone who said she didn’t look good by using the DOG emoji.
And he responded to one viewer – who had said he thought Debbie’s dance looked like a “drag act parody” by calling him “gay and bitter”.
Strictly fan Stefan Whitehouse – himself a dance studio owner – had written: “Well that’s the spice girls ruined for me. I thought at first it was a drag act parody. Then the dancing started and it went down hill. Possibly her worst dance over marked.”
Martin replied to his tweet with just one word, writing: “Gay”.
Stefan responded: “Doesn’t take away how bad she dances the routine!”
And Martin then replied: “Gay and bitter! A great combo.”
I response, Stefan wrote: “So bitter, how do I cope? Oh yes I dance every day and do my job. She wasn’t good in this and over marked. Let it go, your homophobic gay comment, I bet @thedebbiemcgee & @bbcstrictly are so proud of you.”
Seemingly no bothered, Martin replied: “It’s not homophobic to refer to gay person as gay. So don’t play the gay card. You’re not a victim be proud.”
Other Strictly fans who witnessed the conversation online joined in to criticise the magician for his comments.
One said: “Your Dad would turn in his grave if he witnessed that kind of homophobic crap that just fell out of your mouth!”
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Either way, Debbie’s performance with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice wasn’t enough to keep them out of the bottom two.
She found herself in the dance off against Paralympian Jonnie Peacock, but was saved by all four judges and is through to next week.