Strictly winner Ore Oduba defends Ashley Roberts and begs viewers to 'be careful how they vote' after Charles Venn got the boot

The Pussycat Dolls star, 37, was seen crying live on television as she was delivered the devastating news, having found herself near the top of the leader board in previous weeks.

Speaking on The Telegraph’s Talking Strictly podcast, Ore revealed the pressure that Ashley would be under, and said that people should give her a break.

He said:  “When it gets to this stage, we take every single couple for granted. I’m surprised that anybody steps onto that floor on a Saturday night.”

Ore continued: “They’ve arrived on a Monday, they’ve been presented with a dance that they have no idea what it is, they’ve never seen it or done it in their lives before and then three-and-a-half days later they’ve got to put it live in front of the nation. It’s exactly the same with Ashley.”

Ore went on to issue a warning to Strictly fans, insisting: “Everybody, be careful how you vote. Vote how you want, but just be aware that everybody is giving their whole bodies, their minds and their whole selves at this point.

“I was messaging Ashley yesterday, and we saw it on the results show, it gets emotional. When you know you’ve given so much and you’re so close to the end and there’s a chance that you might be going home, that’s going to be emotional for everybody.

“I can empathise with very single one of them, I just hope that the audience can,” he added.

Meanwhile, tonight Ashley also defended herself for crying when she appeared on It Takes Two.

Explaining how she felt being in the dance off for the second time, Ashley told host Zoe Ball: "Everybody’s working so hard and we’ve gotten so far in this competition.


“We’ve put our guts, our sweat, our heart out on that dance floor every Saturday night and I think it just hits me because I don’t want to let [professional partner] Pash down.

“I also just want to go out there and do the best that I can.”

She added: “It is tough, you’re standing there not know what’s going to happen and when the light goes red you feel a bit deflated and then you look each other and you go, ‘Alright, we gotta do this.”

Her professional partner Pasha Kovalev told her: “You are doing the best that you can. I think that it's just because it's so personal."

Ashley has found herself in the bottom two with partner Pasha for the last two weeks and was unable to hide her emotion on Sunday night.

However viewers didn't have a lot of sympathy for the singer, who has been criticised by fans of the show for her past dance experience during the series.


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