Gemma Atkinson lost her temper at a motorist in a supermarket car park, prompting her fiancé Gorka Marquez to joke that she might need “anger management”. The couple, who met on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 and share two children, Mia and Thiago, discussed the incident on a recent episode of their podcast, Lost in Translation.
Gemma explained that she became so frustrated with another driver that she got out of her car to shout at her. The incident happened as two elderly pedestrians were trying to cross in front of her car, while another vehicle ahead was reversing at the same time.
Horn beeping in supermarket car park
Gemma said she was forced to stop and wait for the pedestrians to cross, but the driver of a smaller car behind her, apparently unaware of them, started blasting the horn. She recounted: “The car behind me was quite a small car, couldn’t see in front of me. All they could see was I wasn’t moving, so they beeped their horn, didn’t they? And I said, ‘I don’t know what they want me to do; I can’t go anywhere’.”
“Two seconds later, they beeped it again so I said - I’m getting angry now - so I said to him (Gorka), ‘What’s their f*****g problem?’ I physically can’t move’. And then they did a (long beeping noise).”
Gemma gets out of car to confront driver
Gorka then acted out Gemma’s reaction, twisting round in his seat to challenge an imaginary driver through the window. In the process, he knocked the microphone on its stand, prompting Gemma to laugh and joke that the professional dancer “broke the set”. Gemma asserted that the third beep lasted about “six seconds”.
While this was happening, a pedestrian seemed to look at her as if she were the one honking the horn, and Gemma decided she was “not having it”. She continued: “And I thought, ‘I’m not having it’. So I opened my car door, went out, and I said, 'F*****g wait’. I says, 'There’s people in front of me and a car. I said, 'F*****g wait; have a bit of f*****g patience.
“‘There’s people in front of me and a vehicle reversing so f*****g wait’. The colour drained from her. I got back in the car.”
Gorka suggests anger management
Gorka then interjected, saying: “Anyway, Gemma, I think you have anger issues.” Gemma admitted that Gorka had voiced the same concern to her in the car, adding: “And he just went, ‘Are you okay? You have anger issues’.”
But she apologised. When she realised, because by this point, the pensioners had got past us, and she went, ‘Oh, Sorry, I didn’t see them’.” Gemma pointed out that this was the “point”, claiming the woman hadn’t seen the pedestrians and instead “assumed” and was “beeping your horn up my a**e” for seven seconds. Chuckling, Gemma added that Gorka had asked her if she needed “anger management” in the wake of her rage.
