Strictly stars Fleur East and Vito Coppola on Loose Women
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Fleur and Vito break silence on Strictly dance-off controversy as he details secret accident

The duo revealed the truth

Strictly Come Dancing stars Fleur East and Vito Coppola appeared on Loose Women today.

The pair opened up about the drama that unfolded during a recent performance, when the duo took a tumble that wasn’t aired.

The singer and her dance partner joined the Loose Women panel, where they told Kaye Adams, Judi Love, Denise Welch and Nadia Sawalha what really happened.

Vito told the women: “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.”

Vito confirmed that he had attempted to “stand up and continue” after the fall, but production called for the pair to take a break.

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

Strictly stars Fleur East and Vito Coppola appeared on Loose Women
Fleur and Vito discussed the controversial tumble (Credit: ITV)

Strictly star Fleur East discussed the dance-offs

The singer opened up about how she felt after landing in the bottom two last week. She shared that it was “hard not to take it personally”.

She admitted that she had “just been winging it”. Comparing the experience to her career as a singer, Fleur said: “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.”

Luckily, Fleur and Vito were able to secure a win in the dance-offs with their salsa. The pair proceeded to the next round whilst EastEnders star James Bye and partner Amy Dowden faced the boot.

Strictly stars Fleur East and Vito Coppola appeared on Loose Women
Fleur discussed her experience on the competition (Credit: ITV)

Strictly ‘fix’ claims

Following the reports that Fleur and Vito were granted a redo after their unlucky tumble in the dance-off, viewers criticised the competition’s legitimacy.

However, The Sun reported that the BBC spoke out in defence of the decision, blaming the fall on an “incident with a prop”.

Meanwhile, they argued that the dance had to be restarted as production needed to ensure the dancers were uninjured.

Fleur East under the red lights of the Strictly dance-off
Fleur faced elimination for the second time last Sunday (Credit: BBC)

Strictly dance-off

Even though Fleur and Vito were saved unanimously by the judges this past weekend, many of those watching at home were outraged to see the couple—who scored 32 for their Salsa—relegated to the bottom two for the second time.

Former football player Tony Adams and gymnast Ellie Simmonds both received lower scores than Fleur.

Therefore, fans were baffled when the singer ended up facing elimination.

An unhappy fan tweeted: “Fleur being in the bottom two for the second time this series so far is a complete joke #Strictly.”

Another wrote: “How on Earth was Fleur in the dance-off? She’s absolutely incredible! I think she could win it @FleurEast #Strictly.”

Read more: Strictly breaks silence amid ‘fix’ claims after Fleur and Vito’s ‘unfortunate incident’ during dance-off

Strictly returns to BBC One, this Saturday (November 5), from 7pm.

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