Fleur East has opened up about the result of the Strictly Come Dancing final, after she narrowly missed out on the glitter ball trophy
Fans have slammed the BBC One dance competition as a a “fix” after Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystał won the competition over Fleur, Helen Skelton and Molly Rainford.
However, the 35-year-old singer has said she “didn’t care” who won, as she was simply “buzzing” from the incredible night with her dance partner Vito Coppola.
The Radio presenter phoned into her usual morning show on Hits Radio to chat to Wes Butters about the result.
She said: “It still feels so surreal, almost like it didn’t happen, but I had the most amazing time.
“And at that point when Tess was about to announce the winner, I wasn’t too fussed about who was going to win – I’d already said to the others we’ve all got to this point, we’ve all done our three dances, so I was just buzzing from the night.”
Fleur also threw a dressing room after-party that she shared with her fellow celebrity Molly, to celebrate their time on the show before the big bash began.
“Me and Molly have been sharing a dressing room for the whole series so we bought our families in and had a few drinks there,” Fleur added, “and then went downstairs and there was a massive party!”
“Everyone was there, we were singing, Tyler West was DJing – it was so much fun.”
The former X-Factor star also reflected on her relationship with head judge Shirley Ballas, as after weeks of tough criticism she scored her a ‘12’ out of 10 on Saturday.
“It was so lovely,” Fleur said about the surprising score, “and I said to her afterwards that I feel like she’s been a real teacher for me, a real mentor.
“All her criticism I used to go away and go ‘right, I need to do what Shirley says’, I always knew it was coming from a place of love and she just wanted to nurture what she could see in me.”
She added: “At the end I felt like I was at the Shirley Ballas dance school throughout this competition, and I graduated at the final!”
Despite the show coming to an end, Fleur revealed she was making plans to stay in touch with her professional partner Vito for next year, as well as having dinner this evening.
“We’re going for dinner tonight! He flies to Italy for Christmas soon and we’re not ready to stop seeing each other,” she explained.
“We’ve planned so many things - we want to go away next year; I want to take him to Ghana where my Mum is from and he’s really excited to go.
“Then he’s invited me and my family to Italy to go and stay with his family. We’re in each other’s lives now, it’s not the end.”
The show comes to a close as Fleur announces she is set to launch brand new music with a single, Count The Ways on January 27 2023.
