The Sun revealed the show had planned to sideline the 35-year-old pop star in favour of professional dancer Oti, 28.
Despite their plans, the Strictly star says the judges have grown close and told Lorraine on ITV on Wednesday: "When we met I was a little bit nervous because I don't know her she doesn't know me.
"All I said was, 'If I respect her she'll probably respect me.' From the first sentence, we jelled like bluetooth, even last night, we were texting till midnight.
"It's nice to know her and see her funny side, she's always looking at my bum, I'm always looking at her six pack!
"So it's really nice, we're bonding."
The Sun revealed that The Greatest Dancer producers were launching a major promotional campaign with Oti Mabuse and sidelining Cheryl.
This was said to be because they were scared that Cheryl wasn't going to bring in the numbers they originally thought she would when hiring her.
A show insider said: “Cheryl has certainly had a string of bad luck recently and there’s a lot of grumbling behind the scenes that she’s going to have the same effect on The Greatest Dancer.
"All the publicity and focus of the show has been on her but now her big musical comeback has proved to be a flop, everyone’s worried they’ve put all their eggs in the wrong basket.
“Producers have decided they now want to quietly push Oti more into the spotlight.
“Unlike Cheryl, she has serious dance credentials and is genuinely loved by a lot of viewers following her success on Strictly.
"The channel is doing everything they can to make sure this new show is a hit."
The Sun's Bizarre column told how Cheryl was accused of acting superior towards Oti.
A well-placed source at the show told The Sun: “Cheryl clearly sees herself as the bigger name, even though Oti has impeccable dance credentials. It’s created a real atmosphere.
“Cheryl arrived with such an air of superiority — a few of the crew thought she was being a bit of a diva. Oti has years of dance competition experience alongside Strictly where she’s been massively popular with fans – but has absolutely no ego at all.
"They didn’t seem to gel and it was pretty uncomfortable.”
Source: Read Full Article