Dan Walker tells trolls to 'lay off' Strictly's Shirley Ballas after 'bile and hatred'

Dan Walker has told trolls to "lay off" Strictly Come Dancing's Shirley Ballas. The presenter jumped to the head judge's defense after she was targeted with "bile and hatred" online.

It comes following the 2022 semi-final which saw Will Mellor and Nancy Xu voted off after finding themselves in the dreaded dance-off with Fleur East and Vita Coppola. The pair landed at the bottom of the leaderboard after failing to impress the judges who were critical of the actor's Paso Doble.

While judges Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood chose to save Fleur, Anton Du-Beke opted to keep Will in the competition. As head judge, Shirley cast the deciding vote and chose to save Fleur, explaining: "This is by far, even for me, the most difficult decision I feel I’ve had to make."

Read more: BBC Strictly's It Takes Two interview paused as Will Mellor and Nancy Xu break down in tears

It meant Will and Nancy just missed out on a place in the final, with Fleur and Vita, Helen Skelton and Gorka Marquez, Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystał, and Molly Rainford and Carlos all going through. You can read more about the final four on Strictly 2022 here.

Dan Walker with Nadiya Bychkova in 2021 (PA)

Following the decision, presenter Dan, who competed on Strictly in 2021 with professional dancer Nadiya Bychkova, urged people to be nice after seeing "bile and hatred" online. In a tweet to his 782k Twitter followers, Dan said: "Can people please lay off @ShirleyBallas?

"It's ok to disagree but some of the bile & hatred on here is horrible. She's been dancing her whole life, has won a gallon of titles and loves and cares for what she does.

"Just be nice! PS I'm speaking as someone who she booted out."

Responding, Shirley herself tweeted: "Thank you for all the positive messages I received 1000s overwhelming I read them all hard to reply to them all. Handful of haters as usual sad people I feel for them.

"@mrdanwalker love you to the moon and back. Have a great week." For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.

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