Dan Osborne’s friend Steph Ledigo has spoken out after the pair were photographed on a night out in Los Angeles.
The reality star and the PR professional were spotted looking close over the weekend, with Osborne’s wife Jacqueline Jossa announcing a “break from social media” shortly after.
But 33-year-old Ledigo has now broken her silence, saying she has known Osborne for around five years as they have worked together on celebrity events.
She described their relationship as “purely professional” and said that he is “like a brother” to her.
“I would never go near a married man. It was purely professional,” she told The Sun.
“There has definitely never been anything romantic between us. He’s like a brother. I just don’t feel like that at all.”
She explained that Osborne had been working with a US gym while she was visiting a friend in San Francisco.
“We just went for dinner. He was working and I just met up with them and came back to the UK,” she said.
Ledigo revealed that she has not met Jossa, and said that she is not “close enough” to Osborne to talk to him “about relationships.”
She said that she felt “upset” after the photos were published “because [she] knew nothing had happened” and “didn’t want it to have any impact on his marriage at all”.
Osborne appeared to reference the reports in an Instagram Story shared earlier this week.
“So much b******* gets posted and printed about me… seriously just want them to leave me alone now,” he wrote.
“It’s getting too much, I can’t even hang out with friends or even work without them talking s*** about me.
“Am I being targeted? Cause I swear I don’t see others getting it like I do.”
The photos came weeks after the star strongly denied reports that he “openly kissed” former Love Island contestant Alexandra Cane on a night out in Manchester.
The pair addressed the claims in a joint statement released through their representatives, telling fans that “absolutely nothing happened” between them.
Last year, Osborne and Jossa were hit with cheating allegations when the reality star was linked to Love Island’s Gabby Allen. Both parties vehemently denied the claims.
The couple, who married in May 2017 and share two young daughters, split temporarily but reconciled following Osborne’s stint on Celebrity Big Brother.