Peter Andre has rushed to defend Strictly Come Dancing head judge, Shirley Ballas, after BBC fans branded her 'sexist' following her controversial criticism over the past two weeks.
Shirley, 62, faced harsh criticism from the public after three of her fellow judges voted to save former X Factor star Fleur East during a dance-off, but the head judge insisted that if it was up to her, she would have saved Richie Anderson.
The Strictly head judge has been in the eye of the storm recently, with viewers even calling for Shirley to be sacked from the BBC show, and have labelled her as 'sexist' for appearing to reward male dancers more kindly than female performers.
Following the drama, Mysterious Girl hit-maker Peter has rushed to defend Shirley.
In his latest column, the singer penned: "Firstly, I love Fleur. She is amazing and I have a lot of time for her.
"But I think people like to throw around words like 'sexism' a little too easily. Was Shirley being sexist?
"The way I see it is that Shirley was just expressing her opinion. I've met her many times and she is a lovely person and does not come across as someone who would do something malicious."
Pete went on: "She is a great judge of dance and character and I don't believe she would have meant it the way people are taking it."
Following the recent criticism of Shirley, Saturday night's show saw the former award-winning latin dancer and head judge appear subdued and 'vulnerable' as she gave more humble comments to celebrities and dancers.
Saturday night's show saw some spectacular marks from the judges, including multiple tens from judges Anton Du Beke and head judge Shirley Ballas. Compared to previous weeks, it appeared Shirley had reversed on some of her former harsh criticisms.
Body language expert Judi James claims Shirley decided to 'unleash her inner saccharine' instead of bringing back sharp comments.
Judi told The Mirror: "With Anton winning the ‘Best TV Judge’ award at the NTAs the night before and placing it proudly on his desk, within grasping distance of Shirley Ballas, we could easily have seen a return to the ‘Queen of Mean’ head judge that the fans of Strictly have been complaining about for the past couple of weeks.
"Instead Shirley decided to unleash her inner saccharine tonight, rising to her feet to applaud Anton in a generous gesture and then standing up to clap many of the dances later, rather than making any harsh-sounding criticisms as she did with Ellie T last week."
With viewers rallying against Shirley after some of her previous comments in weeks one to three, it seems Shirley could be reigning it in for fear of more backlash as Judi explained that Shirley appeared more 'vulnerable' this week than on previous appearances.
