Strictly Come Dancing’s Shayne Ward has been left devastated saying viewers have wrongly mistaken his nerves for bravado following his dancefloor debut at the weekend
The actor and singer, 39, performed for the first time last Saturday with pro Nancy Xu dancing a Samba to Stevie Wonder’s Do I Do.
While they didn’t fare too badly with the judges, scoring 21 out of a possible 40 and Shirley Ballas saying she enjoyed their “chemistry, swagger, [and] freedom”, the harsher critics were the people at home.
A number of fans of the BBC dance competition took to social media to brand the X Factor star “cocky” and “overconfident”, warning he would lose votes if he didn’t “tone it down”.
Taking to Instagram Stories on Monday evening, Ward posted a deflated-looking black and white selfie as he addressed the wave of negative remarks.
“Strictly is amazing and I love being part of it,” he began. “But through my smile on TV I'm as nervous as the next person. Not cocky or overconfident... I'm nervous. I just gotta work hard and listen to my wonderful teacher Nancy Xuxi.
“All I can do is my best!” he concluded, followed by a kiss.
Ward’s supposed attitude wasn’t the only talking point, with the That’s My Goal hit-maker also being trolled about his curly hair.
He originally shot to fame with a shaven head when he won ITV talent show The X Factor back in 2015, but despite that being two decades ago, some people seem to have difficulty adjusting to his change in style.
This prompted a “rare” response from his fiancée Sophie Austin, 40, who called for people to “just be kind”.
Posting a video to her own Instagram Stories, the former Hollyoaks actress - who will be seen starring alongside Ward in an episode of BBC medical soap Doctors on October 3 - said she found talk about her partner’s hair “upsetting”.
She explained: “I very rarely do this, but I just want to pop on and say that I find it really upsetting how many people seem to bark on about Shayne’s hair because he doesn’t have a shaved head anymore.
“That is his hair, okay? He has got tight, tight curls, they’re beautiful curls. And one of the biggest reasons he grew it is because our son has exactly the same hair and both of them, especially our little girl, absolutely loves his hair. I mean, she gets upset when he ties it back, she loves it and so does our little man.
“So just be mindful of that, that is his hair and we really love it and just to say, can we just be kind? please?”
She then followed it up by sharing a sweet snap of Ward and their young son snuggled up fast asleep.
“Two curly boys together,” she wrote in the accompanying caption, followed by four red love-heart emojis.
