Fleur East has revealed that it wasn’t just Will Mellor who battled through sickness to perform on last weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The former X Factor finalist, who wowed viewers and the judges with her incredible Argentine Tango on Saturday night, says three more Strictly stars were all hit with nasty bugs after Will was forced to drop out of training sessions because of flu.
Speaking about last weekend’s Strictly on her Hits Radio show, the singer and presenter revealed that it had been a “tough week” for some.
“There were a few mentions on Saturday night, but it was a tough week for a lot of people in the competition,” Fleur explained.
“Hamza [Yassin] was very, very sick, so was Will and so was Kym [Marsh]. And we didn’t say anything on Saturday but [Fleur’s dance partner] Vito [Coppola] was really ill last week too. I got one full day of rehearsal with him.
“Everyone was getting the flu! So, he was out for the count and in bed – he didn’t move for two days.
“I started freaking out on Thursday because I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I’ve had to practice with someone else’. And as soon as Vito did make it to rehearsals, he was a different height, had a different stance – it was like a brand-new routine I had to learn.”
She added: “In the end we got about six hours together before production rehearsal on Friday. But I think when you have that added pressure you just pull it out from somewhere.
“We were both like ‘right we were in the dance off last week, we need to just get this done’.”
Fleur received her highest score of the series for her Argentine Tango, with the routine impressing judge Motsi Mabuse so much that she ended up breaking her chair in all of the excitement.
But it was Hamza Yassin who landed at the top of the leaderboard for his jaw-dropping Salsa routine, while at the other end of the scale was Bros singer Matt Goss, who came in at the bottom of the ranking with just 20 points and ended up leaving the competition.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday night at 6.40pm on BBC One.