Strictly Come Dancing’s Stacey Dooley laughs off ‘diva’ claims ahead of final

Stacey Dooley has laughed off claims of ‘diva behaviour’ ahead of tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing final.

The BBC documentary maker is one of four finalists in this weekend’s live show.

And before this evening’s final, Stacey has been the focus of accusations of being “quite difficult” behind the scenes.

In one such apparent incident, Stacey is said to have ‘ordered staff’ buy her a new outfit for the final press conference during the week after turning up in a tracksuit.

An insider alleged to The Sun newspaper: “Over the past few weeks Stacey has been quite difficult and it has resulted in crew being put off her.

“Some of them are quite glad that this weekend will be the last time they have to work with her.”

However another insider slammed the reports to the Daily Mail newspaper, saying: “Stacey is a well-loved part of the Strictly family.

“Stacey hadn’t had chance to go home all week as she was so busy with rehearsing.

“She was joking with staff about feeling under-dressed and asked if she had time to go out herself to buy something new for the press appearance.”

Stacey herself took to Twitter to quip simply: “Sometimes you just gotta laugh ???‍♀️?”

Meanwhile, reflecting on the series before the winner is crowned live on BBC One tonight, Stacey said this week: “I totally underestimated it in terms of the work load itself I didn’t realise. I’ve been asked to do lots of different shows and I’ve always said Strictly is the only one I’ll do because it’s such a classy show, it’s the biggest show on telly.

“There’s a real nice feel about Strictly, it’s not cheap, it’s brilliant. So I was like ‘yeah it’ll be great, I’ll be in the UK for a couple of months, I’ll stop before Christmas, I’ll dance for six hours a day, perfect.’

“You train for 12 hours a day, everything hurts, you’re in bits, you don’t know the routines, you drive yourself loopy, it’s a hard gig but it’s so worthwhile.”

Strictly Come Dancing airs tonight from 6:30PM on BBC One.