Brendan Cole is one of many celebrities taking to the ice rink this year in a bid to win the latest series of Dancing on Ice - but he's not the only former Strictly star to swap his dancing shoes for skates.
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Ahead of the live show on Sunday, Brendan has opened up about his special friendship with James Jordan, who won the skating competition back in 2019, as well as the support he's received from other Strictly pros.
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Chatting to HELLO! and other journalists at a recent press event, Brendan revealed that he's always had a "great friendship and rivalry" with James.
"We've always been the two clowns of the show actually, you know, always mucking around backstage," he said. "So we've got a great history. He's been amazing, actually. Very supportive with anything I've put up online. He's always messaged me and told me how well he thinks I'm doing and I think that's great."
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"It's a shame he did so very well on the show. That doesn't leave a lot of room for movement." he jokingly added.
Brendan Cole spoke about his friendship with James Jordan
Brendan then went on to talk about the support he's received from other Strictly stars. He said: "But all of the guys from Strictly have been fantastic. I've had a lot of messages from everybody saying how excited they are for me and the fact that they get to see me doing something different."
During the interview, Brendan also revealed that while he may have a reputation for being competitive, which stemmed from his time on Strictly, he isn't out to win the skating competition. "I suppose that's a misunderstood thing really," he said. "I'm never driven to win this. I'm not here to win the show. I'm very competitive with myself. I want to be an amazing skater and as I said to my partner, Vanessa, I said, 'I would love to look like I'm as good as you.' I know it's never going to happen, she has 25 years of experience of doing this, I have none."
"So I'm not here to win, but I do want to be there at the end. I want to be there week on week on week. I make no bones about it," he added.
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