Emotions ran high in the It Takes Two studio on Monday night as Richie Anderson broke down in tears when talking about his shock exit from Strictly Come Dancing at the weekend.
The Radio 2 star was one half of an all-male partnership for the new series, joining forces with reigning champion Giovanni Pernice. The pair followed in the footsteps of John Whaite and Johannes Radebe, who wowed the Strictly judges and fans last year. However, while they made the final , Richie and Giovanni are out of the running already, after just three weeks of competition in the ballroom.
They kicked off Saturday night's Movie Week special with a samba to Lion King anthem Hakuna Matata, delivering a very entertaining routine which was largely well received by the judges and their score had them in the middle of the leaderboard once all the couples had performed. However, it wasn't enough to keep them out of danger and, having landed in the Dance Off, Richie and Giovanni lost out to Fleur East and Vito Coppola.
READ MORE: Shirley Ballas goes against co-stars amid Strictly result uproar
Their exit was widely criticised by fans, with Shirley Ballas also saying she'd have saved them and, the disappointment of bring out of Strictly so early got the better of Richie when he and Giovanni joined host Rylan Clark on spin-off show It Takes Two. After watching highlights of his time on the BBC dancefloor, Richie was asked by Rylan: "What's it like watching it all back?"
Getting choked up straight away, he struggled to get his words out as he replied: "Erm....sorry....I'm just so proud. I've had the best time."
Sensing Richie was struggling, Rylan moved to Giovanni, who said: "You should see the effort he put in in the room every day as well. He really wanted to get it right." Looking at Richie, he added: "I'm really glad you got to do this experience and you know, maybe come back for a Christmas Special at some point, why not?"
Richie joked: "Can I take that as an official invite?" with Rylan quipping: "It's a verbal contract, it's done."
READ NEXT:
