TORONTO -- "BodyBreak" fitness guru Joanne McLeod has issued a statement admitting she used a swear word during Monday's episode of "The Amazing Race."
McLeod and partner Hal Johnson, known to Canadians for their sunny TV family fitness vignettes, were eliminated from the jetsetting CTV series after an arduous test in Regina this week. During the episode, McLeod seemed to drop an F-bomb after being chided by fellow competitors Brett Burstein and Holly Agostino.
Even though the word was bleeped during the broadcast, McLeod told a reporter from The Canadian Press on Tuesday that she in fact said "get off."
However, on Wednesday she changed her tune, suggesting in a post on the "BodyBreak" website that she had been joking when she claimed not to have cursed.
She said it was obvious she said the word under her breath and that she wanted to make light of the situation in media interviews.
"It came after a very long, frustrating day as well as dealing with a painful hamstring injury, not having slept for 30 hours, being dehydrated and there had been a history of verbal attacks from Brett," she wrote in the statement.
"The producers opted to single out this under-the-breath comment in the show and I apologize to the news outlets and to anyone I have offended."
Originally when questioned about the incident, McLeod had said: "What people didn't see is that I basically said 'Get off, get off the field.' So that's what they saw."
Johnson then chimed in.
"I didn't realize 'get' was a bad word," he said, laughing. "It was under her breath, 'Get off, leave us alone.' But you put a bleep in there and all of a sudden it's like, oh, you're letting everyone draw their conclusion. Because you don't see Joanne's mouth move."
Told that it seemed unfair to insert the bleep if McLeod hadn't actually cursed, Johnson replied: "Well, we were told right from the beginning it's a TV show first and then it's a race. So it's entertainment and we get that and understand that. But we had a lot of fun, up until that point."
