Fleur East responds to Strictly Come Dancing ‘fix’ claims after dance-off

Fleur East has responded to ‘fix’ claims after last weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing dance off.

Fleur East and James Bye were in the bottom two on Sunday and had to perform again to stay in the competition.

But reports have claimed that Fleur was able to restart her dance in the pre-recorded results show after a fall, leading to accusations of a ‘fix’.

Appearing on Loose Women today, Fleur and pro partner Vito Coppola explained all.

Vito shared: “Basically what happened, in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair. Literally was a bad fall. Everyone was gasping, but I showed them I was okay and able to restart so thank you – I’m fine, I’m here today so all good. Thank you very much.”

He continued: “We were continuing, because 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, and when I turned around she was spinning the wheel…”

Fleur added: “I was ready, I was like the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’.”

She went on to say about being in the dance-off: “It’s hard not to take it personally but to tell you the truth I’m not a trained dancer no matter what anybody thinks. I’ve never been to stage school. I don’t know what toe is, what heel is… [Vito] will tell you, I don’t know any of it.

“I’ve literally just been winging it to be honest. The thing is when you sing, you have the mic in your hand. You’re controlling the vocals, you can’t really move that much to be honest. It’s like smoke and mirrors – you’ve got dancers behind you and If I’ve ever done a music video and I can’t get a dance move, they’ll change it because I’m the singer. I’ve never had to do anything I can’t do.”

The BBC said in a statement: “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 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.”

A source told The Sun of the incident: “About five seconds in, when she was meant to pull Vito along in the prop chair, the legs slipped. She came crashing down, taking Vito down too.

“They landed incredibly hard — it was quite shocking and the audience audibly gasped.”

It was Fleur’s second time in the dance-off this series after dancing a salsa to Break My Soul by Beyoncé for Strictly’s Halloween special.

The judges saved Fleur unanimously, seeing her through to this weekend’s latest live show as James bowed out of the competition.

Also on the remaining cast are TV & radio broadcaster Helen Skelton, TV star Will Mellor, stand up comedian Ellie Taylor, radio DJ Tyler West, media personality Richie Anderson and footballer turned manager Tony Adams MBE.

Completing this season’s cast are singer & actress Molly Rainford, actress & TV host Kym Marsh, Animal Park presenter & cameraman Hamza Yassin and Paralympian & broadcaster Ellie Simmonds.

Each week the celeb and pro couples take to the floor hoping they have what it takes to impress the judges and fans.

On Sunday night the lowest ranked couples will go head to head in the dance off before one is voted out.

Strictly continues this Saturday and Sunday night on BBC One.

You can watch episodes online via BBC iPlayer.