Strictly Come Dancing star Bethany Antonia has addressed a controversy caused by the BBC, which blurred out her t-shirt featuring a pro-trans slogan.
Earlier this month, during a VT showing the House of the Dragon actor in rehearsals, Antonia was seen wearing a shirt bearing the words “Protect the dolls”, a phrase referencing the need to protect trans women.
The BBC told The Independent that the decision to blur the words was an “appropriate step to reduce the inclusion of any overt branding or slogans that may be present, regardless of the wording or statement in question”. A spokesperson called it “standard practice on any entertainment show”.
While the term “dolls” originates from the ballroom scene of the 1980s, “Protect the Dolls” was popularised in 2025 after designer Conner Ives produced a white t-shirt with the slogan – with the proceeds going to US charity Trans Lifeline.
Antonia has now revealed she didn’t realise the phrase had ties to a charity, and defended the BBC from any criticism.
“I think I made a choice to wear that t-shirt without considering the fact that it was linked to a charity, and that it was linked to what some people consider a brand,” she told Digital Spy. “The BBC had to do what they had to do when they edited it out, to keep it fair for everybody.”
The t-shirt Antonia appeared to be wearing was the same one that has been worn by stars like Madonna, Pedro Pascal and Addison Raye in the past.
In October 2025, a group of British trans activists, including Munroe Bergdorf, all wore the t-shirt on the cover of Glamour magazine, in an issue declaring “The Dolls” one of the winners of the magazine’s Woman of the Year awards.
On Strictly, Antonia is partnered with Nancy Xu, and the pair are in the only same-sex partnership on this year’s series, with the Hadestown actor, who is openly lesbian, saying that watching Nicola Adams and Katya Jones dance together on Strictly in 2020 had inspired her to publicly embrace her sexuality.
“When I watched Nicola and Katya do it for the first time and be the first same-sex pairing, I wasn’t out to everyone in my life,” she told BBC News.
“Watching them do the show made it so much easier for me to have that conversation with people in my life… It was so important to me to make sure that if I did [Strictly], I got to do it with a woman.”
Former England footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr became the fourth couple to be eliminated from the 2026 series after a dance off with Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu.
It was also revealed that next week’s episode – a Halloween special – will feature Strictly’s first triple dance-off.
The three couples with the lowest combined judges’ scores and public votes will dance again next week, before the judges eliminate one pair.
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday 31 October at 6.30pm on BBC One.
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