Kevin Clifton has spilled all on how his Strictly co-star AJ Pritchard tried to steal Stacey Dooley for himself as a dance partner last year.
Turns out there’s a lot more to it than just pairing up celebrities with their professionals, and Strictly’s dancers have to put in some hard graft.
Appearing on a one-off Strictly special set to air on Saturday night, Kevin explains how the dancers and contestants are put through a ‘speed dance’ round to test their compatibility.
The speed dance sees all the celebrities and pro dancers briefly dance with each other, before being put together in their partnerships.
According to The Sun, he claims he was ‘going for it’ with Stacey while they were dancing in a salsa circle, but as soon as they took a break, AJ swooped in and tried to peel Stacey away for a one-on-one chat.
‘Last year with Stacey in the salsa circle, I was going for it… overdoing it,’ Kevin says.
‘At one point, we were on a coffee break and AJ interrupted us in the middle of us talking and took her away,’ he explained.’He wanted to get to know her and see what she was about.’
‘I was like, “It’s not Love Island mate!”‘
Oh, how things could have been so different.
Luckily for Kevin, he managed to fend off AJ’s advances and he was chosen to be paired up with Stacey for last year’s show.
The duo went on to win the series and Kevin and Stacey are actually now dating, following her split from ex-boyfriend Sam Tucknott.
And while they recently made their return to Strictly to take to the floor as reigning champions, the pair are determined to keep their romantic life pretty private.
In an interview with The Guardian, Stacey said: ‘Kev and I agreed not to go into too much detail about our private lives because you can’t really indulge that and then ask for privacy.
‘What I am happy to say is Kev’s amazing. I’m happy, life happens. I’ve got an amazing career and I’m very lucky.’
Kevin will be back on Strictly this year and he’s partnered with Anneka Rice.
He was recently forced to deny claims he’s ‘fuming’ with the pairing and insisted he’s having a ‘wicked time’ with Anneka in rehearsals.
AJ, meanwhile, will be dancing with YouTube star Saffron Baker.
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