Strictly Come Dancing star Graziano Di Prima spoke out about his shock elimination on Sunday night's show while out at the Inside Soap Awards on Monday night. The professional dancer and Capital Radio Breakfast DJ Vick Hope were the fourth couple to leave the show, and Vick later claimed that the judges had knocked her confidence. When questioned about this, Graziano told reporters including HELLO!: "If you think before rehearsal, they said so many good things about her [Vick]. So they really said the technique which is a shame. And because she is a lady they are going to straight away look at her legs."
Graziano has spoken about his Strictly exit and Vick Hopes comments about the judges
Graziano also spoke about the show's decision to keep in Katya Jones and Seann Walsh instead of them, with many believing it to be down to the show wanting viewing figures after the couple's well-publicised kiss earlier in the month. "At the end of the day, it's a dance, they did a Quickstep, it's totally different," he said, adding that the Cha Cha was a particularly hard dance to perform. "Of course we did our best, but sometimes you forget that you are part of a show and you do all you can. It's a shame the judges didn’t like the Cha Cha, if you see every week on the show the Cha Cha was the worst dance for everyone, so what can I say?" he said.
MORE: Joe McFadden opens up about his relationship with former Strictly dance partner Katya Jones
Graziano and his girlfriend at the Inside Soap Awards on Monday night
On Monday's It Takes Two, Vick spoke about how the judges had at time put her down. She said of her Strictly experience: "I feel I have learnt to become more patient, and more confident. There were some weeks the judges' knocked my confidence but that's life too. You pick yourself up and you do it better and you work harder." Vick had also opened up about leaving the show on Monday morning, telling Capital Radio Breakfast's Roman Kemp: "It was very strange because after the dance-off, then the judges have to give their decisions but there was a bit of a conflab with some producers and then they gave their decisions. It was just stunned silence in the studio, it was a really weird atmosphere."
READ: Brendan Cole on why Strictly doing Street Dance was a disappointment
The 29-year-old indicated that Shirley Ballas didn’t like her after Roman opened up about the critical comments she gave her during the first week of the competition. Vick responded: "I think I've got to be careful what I say here, because you never know what someone's thinking. And it was from week one that people were suggesting there was something there, I don’t know. It's been consistent and Saturday night I really felt it was just weird, wasn’t it?"
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