Strictly Come Dancing champion Rose Ayling-Ellis has revealed the sweet gesture that Prince Charles and Camilla extended to her during their visit to the EastEnders set. Rose, who plays Frankie Lewis in the BBC One soap, met the The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall when they filmed an EastEnders cameo.
The star, who made history as Strictly's first deaf contestant last year and has campaigned for British Sign Language to be recognised as an official language and be given legal status in the UK. And she was impressed that the royal couple conversed with her using BSL.
Speaking ahead of the Platinum Party at the Palace in honour of the Queen's 70 year reign, Rose told host Kirsty Young: "They tried out acting. It was really, really special. Both of them came up to me and the first thing they did they signed 'good morning' to me."
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She added: "I was really, really touched by that. I was really impressed that they know how to sign good morning." Seated alongside judge Shirley Ballas on the BBC show, she said Camilla told her that she and her family had voted for her.
"Apparently Camilla is a big fan of Strictly and she said that she voted for me every week and her children voted for me every week," she said. That's incredible that the royal family voted for me. That's just mad." And Kirsty told her: "When we watched you dancing it's not so incredible really."
Kirsty added: "I want to say on behalf of everybody thank you to you for what you have done for raising the awareness of sign language." And Rose, who performed a moving routine with dance partner Giovanni Pernice featuring 10 seconds of silence as a tribute to the deaf community, says she isn't finished yet.
"I would like to carry on with it because I still feel that my work isn't done," she said. "I've still got so much work I could do. And I want to do more and I want to raise more awareness because there is so much to learn about the deaf community and I really wanted to share that."
Rose, who looked chic in a pink suit with white ankle boots, was praised on her interview. maggiemoo1982 told her as she shared a snap on her Instagram: "Amazing interview, thank you for representing our community with such dignity and gracex" rowleske said: "Wow you look radiant. Brimming with happiness and contentment. Wonderful interview with Shirley."
And maz_hayden commented: "Beautiful Rose you look stunning and I love your outfit. Hope you had a great time at the festival. Your interview with Kirsty Young before the show was amazing. You are such an inspirational and happy young lady."
Last month Rose became the first celebrity to sign a CBeebies bedtime story to mark the end of Deaf Awareness Week. Using British Sign Language the actress, who has been deaf since birth, told the tale of a young bear who struggles to hear. Can Bears Ski?, written by Raymond Antrobus and illustrated by Polly Dunbar, was the first ever BSL-signed story on CBeebies and it also had subtitles.
