Matthew Morrison responds to allegations he sent a 'flirty' message to a 'SYTYCD' contestant by reading the message he says he sent to the dancer

• Morrison responded to an accusation that he sent a "flirty" message to an "SYTYCD" contestant.
• "It's really unfortunate that I have to sit here and defend myself," he said in an Instagram video.

Matthew Morrison has responded to allegations that he sent a "flirty" message to a contestant on "So You Think You Can Dance" and that's why he's no longer a judge on the show.

In a video the "Glee" star posted on his Instagram on Thursday night, he denied the allegation.

"It's really unfortunate that I have to sit here and defend myself and my family against blatantly untrue statements made anonymously, but I have nothing to hide," he said.

"So in the interest of transparency, I will read to you the one message that I wrote to a dancer on the show: 'Hey, it's Matthew. If you don't mind, would love to get your number and talk you through some things.' The end."

Morrison did not show his phone screen during the video, or any image of the message he said he wrote.

He went on to say that he sent the message "because this dancer and I both share a mutual respect for a choreographer that I've known for over 20 years, and I was trying to help her get a job as a choreographer on the show."

"It's devastating that we live in this world where gossip rules and people's lives are being thrown around as clickbait," Morrison continued.

"I think this is much bigger than me and this story. Gossip is toxic, and it is destroying our society, and we need to do better. And in no way do I want this to take away from the show, because dance has always been a unifying and healing modality, and I genuinely wish all the contestants and my fellow judges all the best."

On Tuesday, People reported new details about Morrison's departure, crediting them to an anonymous source close to the Fox reality show. Morrison, who has been married to Renee Puente since 2014, was fired from the show "after he had an inappropriate relationship with a female contestant," the source told People.

"They didn't have sex, but he reached out to her through flirty direct messages on social media," the source said. "She felt uncomfortable with his line of comments and went to producers, who then got Fox involved. He was fired after they did their own investigation."

The Tony-nominated actor had only appeared on two episodes of "SYTYCD" before announcing over the weekend that he would no longer be a judge.

In a statement the actor said he "did not follow competition production protocols, preventing me from being able to judge the competition fairly."