Strictly Come Dancing professional Dianne Buswell has urged her fans to stop hounding Shirley Ballas with online abuse.
Over the weekend, Dianne and her celebrity partner Dev Griffin became the third pair eliminated, after a dance-off against Viscountess Emma Weymouth.
This led to fans of Dianne – whose boyfriend is the popular vlogger and former Strictly finalist Joe Sugg – to hit out at the show’s Head Judge Shirley Ballas, despite the fact she didn’t even get a say in the final vote.
“Please sort your fans out,” one Twitter user wrote to Joe and Dianne, in the wake of the abuse.
“I get why people are upset & I don’t think it was [Dev]’s time to go. But sending vile abusive tweets & death threats to Shirley Ballas is totally out of order. Imagine if it was a member of your family on the receiving end.”
Dianne was quick to respond, saying: “Guys this is terrible you can not be bullying like this. It’s awful and really upsets me to hear this.
“It’s simply not ok and should never happen!”
The decision to send Dev and Dianne home over Emma and her partner Aljaž Škorjanec has proved to be a very controversial one, with many – including former professional James Jordan – questioning the judges’ choice.
In a more public tweet responding to her elimination, Dianne said: “I have seen so many tweets and msgs the last few days but at the end of the day this show is the best and I’m so excited to watch the rest each Saturday night as there allllll soooooo amazing ! So please let’s think of that !!!! I really do love them all!”
Following Dev and Dianne’s exit, 12 couples remain in this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing.
This week, after being saved by the judges, Emma and Aljaž will be performing a Viennese Waltz to Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love For You.
Elsewhere, frontrunners Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse will be dancing the Cha Cha Cha to Get Stupid by former Strictly star Aston Merrygold, while we can also look forward to Karim Zeroual doing the Salsa to Who Let The Dogs Out.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.40pm on BBC One.