Vito Coppola has blamed his and Fleur East's Strictly dance-off drama on a 'nasty fall' after it emerged that they were given a chance to start their routine again.
Just weeks after Sax singer Fleur unexpectedly fell into the bottom two for the first time, despite scoring well with the judges, the former X Factor finalist and partner Vito found themselves in the drop zone again, having finished in the 'cursed' position of middle of their leaderboard for their Halloween Week salsa to Beyonce's Break My Soul.
Fleur and Vito ended up in the dance-off alongside James Bye and Amy Dowden, with millions of viewers who tuned into Sunday's Strictly results show, seeing EastEnders star James sent home from the competition, after all four judges opted to save Fleur and Vito. However, what fans at home didn't see was that Fleur and Vito got to perform their routine again, after a fall at the start of their first try.
Speaking to The Sun, a source said: "Poor Fleur looked stunned and devastated, and no one really knew what was happening on or off stage. Eventually, the warm-up guy came on and addressed the audience while Fleur and Vito got checked out.
"They started their dance again and obviously this second version was the one aired. There was no reference to the fall by the judges either."
After they became the focus of 'fix' claims, Fleur and Vito addressed the issue on Thursday's Loose Women, when Vito explained: “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.
Reacting to Vito's claims, Loose Women panellist Denise Welch quizzed: "It was health and safety, wasn’t it? That’s why you did it again."
He added: “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."
Giving her take on things, Fleur commented: “I was ready, I was like the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’.”
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