Strictly Come Dancing star Fleur East has spoken out about the incident that led to her restarting her dance-off routine last week.
Over the weekend, Fleur landed in the bottom two for the second time, with the Strictly judges ultimately opting to save her and eliminate EastEnders star James Bye.
In the days since, the BBC was forced to speak out when it was reported the former X Factor finalist had been allowed to begin her dance in Sunday’s pre-recorded results show again, after an incident at the beginning of her performance.
During Thursday’s edition of Loose Women, Fleur and her professional dance partner Vito Coppola were asked for their side of the story.
Vito explained: “Basically what happened, in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair. Literally, [it was] a bad fall. Everyone was gasping.
“But I showed them I was okay, and able to restart… I’m here today so all good. Thank you very much.”
When panellist Denise Welch questioned whether “healthy and safety” regulations meant they had to start the dance again, the Italian star continued: “We always say to each other, ‘If anything happens, let’s just keep going, keep continuing’ and literally I was trying to stand up and continue.”
Fleur agreed: “I was ready. I was like, ‘the show must go on’. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’.”
A BBC spokesperson previously said of the matter: “After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency.
“As they had not begun to dance before the incident occurred, it was decided they could start the performance again, once it was confirmed they were fit to do so.”
Elsewhere in her Loose Women interview, Fleur spoke about landing in the bottom two for the second time, despite generally good critiques from the judging panel.
“It’s hard not to take it personally,” she admitted. “But to tell you the truth I’m not a trained dancer no matter what anybody thinks. I’ve never been to stage school…
“[Vito] will tell you, I don’t know any of it. I’ve literally just been winging it to be honest.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday night on BBC One. Loose Women airs every weekday at 12.30pm on ITV.