Strictly head judge Shirley Ballas, 64, has clarified her position on the growing rumours among fans that there may be bad blood between the judges on this year’s series of the BBC dance competition.
Since joining the show in 2016, Ballas has led the judging panel and presided over the deciding vote during the dreaded dance-offs.
The 64-year-old has relished her time at the helm of the judging panel, where she has overseen memorable dancers and joyous moments.
Speaking to RadioTimes, Ballas claimed her “eyeballs nearly dropped out” when Emmerdale star Kelvin Fletcher performed his sensational Week One Samba in 2019.
Another favourite moment for Ballas was deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis’s touching silent routine with embattled former pro Giovanni Pernice.
While Ballas has been glowing about her Strictly experience, questions over on-air bickering between the judges have been raised by fans.
Fans had raised concerns over rifts between the judging panel after they were seen snapping at each other while delivering remarks to the show’s dancers.
Ballas threw cold water on the rumours, declaring she and her fellow judges are “all friends”.
Ballas noted she has known both Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse for more than 30 years and has grown very close to Craig Revel-Horwood over the last eight years.
“We have such a good banter between us,” she laughed.
While Ballas was keen to put any feud discussion to bed, she also admitted judging can be a difficult process.
The 64-year-old explained that she tries to “read the room” and tailor her remarks to each celeb and dancer pair.
She described having “a technician hat, an empathy hat and a snuggle-bunny cuddle hat if I feel they need it.”
Ballas revealed the hardest part of judging is her role as head of the panel, where she has the ultimate decision on which contestant goes home if there is a split opinion on the dance-off.
Luckily for Ballas, this past weekend saw Jamie Borthwick voted off the programme before she was able to deliver her verdict.
The EastEnders star lost out in the dance-off when faced with Montell Douglas, although the result sparked outrage and even claims of a “fix” from some viewers.
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Much of the outrage wasn’t aimed at Douglas staying in the competition, however, but rather the fact that Pete Wicks had managed to make it through to the quarter-finals.
Wicks has spent much of the past few weeks occupying the lower spots on the leaderboard and Week 10 was no different.
However, the viewing public made sure he sailed through to the next stage of the contest, a decision Wicks was completely dumbfounded by.
In fact, soon after Borthwick’s exit, the former TOWIE star took to Instagram to admit he “didn’t know” why people were voting for him.