Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
Anton du Beke and Giovanni Pernice had arranged to meet Gorka Marquez at a cathedral in San Sebastian while filming the latest episode of their BBC show - but they were struggling to find him. Anton cheekily jibed that Gorka - whose height is believed to be just 5ft 5in - was too short to be visible, as Giovanni was forced to get his phone out to try to locate him.
"It will be very difficult to see him, he's very short!" he quipped, before adding: "Why doesn't he stand up? Oh he is!" By this point, Gorka - who is in a committed relationship with ex-soap star Gemma Atkinson - had resorted to waving both his arms in the air, before they finally found him.
And when they did, there was more playful teasing in store. The trio met up with Gorka's mum in a city which Anton had earlier jokingly branded a "nudist paradise" - and he didn't hesitate to grill her on whether the Strictly Come Dancing star had been mischievous as a child.
She loyally insisted he hadn't been "naughty", but Gorka admitted that his father had a different opinion. Without skipping a beat, Anton insisted that his mum probably had "worse eyesight", so didn't notice his bad behaviour.
window.top.addEventListener('primisPlayerInit',e=>{try{if(e.detail&&e.detail.playerApiId==="v114945"){if(window.document.getElementsByClassName('jwplayer')[0]){e.detail.float('disable')}}}catch(e){}});document.addEventListener("tcfLoaded",function(){let el=document.createElement('script');el.setAttribute('src','https://live.primis.tech/live/liveView.php?s=114945&playerApiId=v114945');document.getElementById('ovp-primis').appendChild(el)})Gorka grinned sheepishly at his mum as she made the admission that, although he wasn't badly behaved, he was "very chubby" and "greedy" as a child. He joked back: "And even now!" as he feasted with the other three around the table.
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Gorka Marquez waved his arms around in an attempt to be seen despite his height (Image: BBC)Anton's mum's family hailed from Spain, while Gorka was born in Bilbao, barely more than one hour's drive from where the trio were meeting up, making Italian native Giovanni the only one at the table without an ancestral link to Spain.
However, he joined in animatedly as they all set about testing the food culture.
Gorka confessed that his partner Gemma absolutely "hates" him for one traditional trait he has - tucking into Spanish ham at Christmas time.
"Gemma's vegetarian but at Christmas I still buy [ham] and put it all over the kitchen, and she hates me for that," he confessed.
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window.topArticlesScript="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/js/dist/article-top-articles20240326.min.js""Every morning I'm there with my knife, chopping ham away and she's looking at me like... 'What is this?!"
As he told the story, the trio tucked into a "melt in the mouth" pork product, with Gorka going on to joke: "You can leave me here [with the ham] and pick me up when you finish your day!"
After the feast, a bemused Giovanni seemed puzzled by Gorka's voracious appetite, exclaiming: "Considering Gorka is all muscly, I don't understand how he can eat that much and look that way - I think I need a siesta now!"
Likewise, Anton tucked into the cheesecake - his first slice in 14 years - and awarded it a massive 47 out of 10.
He confessed: "My arteries are going 'Really? Another slice?' and my heart is going: 'Go on, have another slice!'"
Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
Strictly's Gorka Marquez mercilessly mocked by co-star Anton du Beke over appearance
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