Strictly feud exposed as show star takes a swipe at judges – despite landing high score on last week’s show
A STRICTLY Come Dancing professional has hinted at a feud with BBC judges – despite bagging their first 10-score in week three.
BBC head judge Shirley Ballas, 63, pulled out her maximum-points paddle for Karen Hauer, 41, and Eddie Kadi, 40, on Saturday, following their impressive Couple’s Choice routine.
The score saw the Strictly Come Dancing star accused of “favouritism” – yet it was a complete U-Turn from the week before.
At the time, the pair’s Cha Cha Cha was accused of lacking in content – with fans noting how Karen looked “furious” at the brutal remarks on technique.
On Thursday’s Good Morning Britain Karen, who is taking part in her twelfth Strictly season, said of the Week Two routine: “I think the judges had a different vision of what was happening.
“And obviously the way that we were expressing ourselves with the Cha Cha was not what they are used to seeing in the show.”
She then added: “But it was a bit different for us, we wanted to enjoy ourselves.
“We wanted to show a different side to the Cha Cha.
“But the fact that it all turned around – that’s the amazing thing about Strictly though.”
Back in Week two, fans were convinced the professional dancer might be at war with the show’s head judge.
They received a score of just 21 points from the judges.
Shirley did not hold back with her critique of the pair’s moves on Strictly Come Dancing, especially the choreography.
She said: “I want to be fair to everybody and week two and three are a little bit technical, you danced everything on your toes.
“It’s not a toe-in Cha Cha Cha, it’s more flat, you have to lower your heels.
“I didn’t see a straight leg, the weight was back, I didn’t mind this Cuban thing going but not for the whole routine.”
She finished her critique by saying: “The posture needs to be in a straight line and we need a little bit of what is a straight leg and what is a bent leg.”
Fans thought the pair looked seething, especially Karen due to her history with the judge.
Shirley used to mentor professional dancer Kevin Clifton, 40 who divorced from Karen in 2018.
One fan took to social media platform Reddit with a thread titled ‘Karen was p***** off at those comments,” as they thought that Eddie was caught in the crossfire as Shirley blasted the choreography.
The viewer wrote: “Bet there was some backstage drama after that.
“I’ve always got the impression that Shirley and Karen don’t get along, possibly because Shirley was a mentor to Kevin Clifton and Karen and Kevin obviously divorced.”