OLIVIA Attwood and Pete Wicks kept shtum about their intimate Ibiza snaps when they reunited on Loose Women Men today – but their body language did all the talking for them.
Here, body language expert Judi James tells The Sun the key clues to why their friendship is in jeopardy.
The best pals used distancing rituals while appearing on Loose Women[/caption]
Pete had his arm around Olivia’s waist – but they kept their bodies apart[/caption]
She claims that awkwardness surrounding interest in pictures of them looking cosy on a boozy yacht party last week has weakened their banterous chat and seen them distance themselves.
Appearing on the panel alongside Sam Thompson and host Christine Lampard, the pair dodged talking directly about the incident that led Olivia to be in the doghouse with her husband Bradley Dack.
Teasing what was to come during a brief appearance on This Morning, Sam, Pete and Olivia stood together – but Judi has revealed the real story behind the smiles.
“What we can see here are called distancing rituals,” she said.
“You’ve got the three of them standing there and Pete is already doing bromance signals with Sam as a way of being distanced from Olivia.
“Yes, Pete has had one hand on her waist, but their torsos are a long way apart.
“Why would you do that? Why not just have a nice, relaxed cuddle between good mates?”
As Loose Women kicked off, Pete and Olivia sat together on the right hand side of the panel.
Things got off to a shaky start as the programme’s first topic of discussion was about getting “shame shivers” – a term coined to describe the moment you think of things you regret.
Fingering mouth
Judi said: “When the host said, ‘everybody gets ‘shame shivers’, don’t they?’ Olivia said ‘no’ straight away and good for her.
“She had no shame and no regrets, but of course, everybody’s thoughts are going to be on the headlines and that’s when Pete started fingering his mouth.
“This is usually a sign – putting your fingers over your mouth – that you’re not quite sure what to say at this point.
“And Olivia did actually mirror that gesture as well. So they both look a little bit awkward as they obviously weren’t going to discuss it.
“Pete then said ‘life’s too short for regrets’. I just find this really strange.
“He looks like the perfect man created by AI, almost unreal in the way that he looks, and he’s a good communicator. But it was just a bit weird to see him going into that closed down mode as though he was about 17 years old and didn’t quite know how to handle it.”
Masking ritual
“Olivia got onto the subject of the positives of not having children means there’s no one to have regrets for.
“But she started to sort of fidget with her fringe.
“We often do a gesture like that in what’s called a cutoff. It’s a masking ritual.
“It’s when actually you want to hide your face a little bit. So again, she was looking a little bit unsure of quite how to deal with that point.”
Rejection signals
Judi added: “Throughout the show, Pete is touching, holding hands and pushing his arm out towards his mate, but there’s nothing going on with Olivia.
“In fact, if anything with Olivia, he got his elbow in a rejection signal pointing towards her.
“This is not a signal of any guilt, but more not quite knowing how to cope with it and process it.
“That discomfort from Pete in particular, ran all the way through the programme.
“When he turned to listen to Olivia speak, and I have to say he didn’t do a lot of eye engagement with her, but when he did, we suddenly got arm fold barrier rituals, as though he wanted to self-protect to close the whole thing down slightly.
Olivia’s irritation
“Olivia was maybe a little bit more confident, but she was doing what are called eyelid stutters.
“We got a lot of flapping, you know, it’s one of the papers weren’t blowing on her desk the way that her eyelids were going – and that to me kind of perhaps suggested a degree of irritation.
“She looked a little bit annoyed that it had all gone a little bit clunky, a little bit difficult.
“We got a metronomic pen gesture at one point. She got a pen and she was twiddling it round and again, that to me made her look slightly testy and slightly impatient.
“She was actually scratching her own teeth at one point, and that was a very interesting gesture. Again, showing a degree of irritation.
“We saw her mirroring Pete’s ritual of folding her arms, but she was doing it more sitting back as though she wasn’t particularly happy with the way that it all gone a little bit awkward.”
Frosty atmosphere
They kept their distance[/caption]
“At one point Pete called Olivia his ‘female friend’ and she did a kind of side eye roll with her arms folded and again, we got the flattering of the eyelashes.
“She kind of scratched her shoulder and very much showed off her rings on that hand. Yeah, it was a bit strange to be looking at.
“When Pete mocked her hair, she put her arm up and sort of pushed him away.
“That was almost one of the only nearly touching rituals that we got from the two of them, but pushing him away looked a bit strange.
“Then it went silent. I think it lasted about two seconds, but on a live show like that it feels like two years because normally they’re talking over one another.
“Suddenly to get a moment of silence between a group like that, it did feel slightly toe curling.
“It was unnecessary. It was totally unnecessary.”
Avoidance
Olivia appeared annoyed about the dynamics being thrown off[/caption]
Judi added: “I hope they get back to normal again and a bit more relaxed.
“The nearest they came to broaching the subject was when they brought up ‘shame shivers’ as a topic.
“Instead of getting it all out in the open and saying ‘we’re just mates’ we got a lot of very awkward body language.
“I felt it was a missed opportunity in a way.
“Pete in particular didn’t seem to know quite how to cope with everything and I found that very interesting.
“These are two reality stars that have been in the game for years. They’re seasoned professionals, but the degree of awkwardness and not just facing it head on, threw up a lot more interesting body language tells than it might have done if they’d have just said, ‘oh, look, you know, it’s nothing. Bury it. We’re just mates’.”