Destiny Church pastor and leader of the Vision NZ political party Hannah Tamaki won't be a part of the cast of Dancing With The Stars NZ, it has been confirmed.
MediaWorks released a statement on Tuesday after rumours of Tamaki's involvement sparked outrage online and in the media.
"Our announcement for this year’s Dancing with the Stars cast is scheduled for the end of March, however we are taking the unusual step to confirm Hannah Tamaki will not be part of that line-up," a spokesperson for MediaWorks said.
"It was originally planned for Hannah to take part in the show. We now recognise this was a mistake and we apologise.
"We have seen a very strong reaction, some of which has been extreme and concerning and MediaWorks does not condone bullying. We would be failing in our duty of care to everyone if we continued as planned."
MediaWorks, which owns Newshub, said it would be reviewing its decision making processes in the future.
On Monday night's episode of The Project NZ, host Kanoa Lloyd responded to rumours Tamaki would appear on the show, slamming her "xenophobic and homophobic" views as "properly dangerous".
