AJ Pritchard: Strictly Come Dancing star 'has Lauren Steadman's family's approval'

The 24-year-old British-born dancer has been guiding Paralympian Lauren, 25, through her Strictly Come Dancing 2018 journey for 11 weeks of the competition now and the pair have struck up a close bond. Last week, AJ got to know Lauren’s great-grandmother Doreen when they visited to show her their South Pacific-inspired American Smooth before debuting it on the dance floor. On It Takes Two earlier this week, he spoke out about meeting the family. The duo having made it to the semi-final, host Zoe Ball, 47, announced: “One very special person is very happy that you’ve made it through this year.”

They then showed a clip of Doreen voicing her pride in Lauren and AJ for how far they’d come on Strictly.

“Congratulations to Lauren and AJ for getting through to the semi-final,” she said.

“Do you feel, AJ, that you have her approval now?” Zoe asked the Strictly professional.

“Definitely now,” he replied. “Because when we did our first dance for her she was with it, wasn’t she? 

“She went, here’s a 10 and hid the one,” he said, holding up an imaginary paddle and covering it.

“Just to make sure, she was like, ‘That’s a zero,’” he chuckled. “I was like, ‘Ooh, Craig, that’s harsh isn’t it!’

“But no, we definitely got a 10 from her on the night, so I was overwhelmed.”

Last night, Lauren and AJ performed their last two routines before the final, hoping to earn a place in the line-up.

Their semi-final routines saw them debut a Tango and a Samba for the judges and fans, sadly landing at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Darcey Bussell, 49, said she “felt nerves” in Lauren’s Tango, while Craig Revel Horwood, 53, said: “It did become a bit pedestrian in places.”

They scored 31 points for the dramatic routine, later showcasing their Samba, which scored a disappointing 23 points.

After a few errors in the dance, Bruno Tonioli, 63, said: “I felt for you. It happens to all of us.”

“It’s just a shame it went a bit wrong,” Craig agreed. “It just wasn’t your night, darling.”

Meanwhile, Shirley Ballas, 57, added: “You have a larger than life partnership but you had too many mistakes. It’s very difficult to put two dances together in one week, but not your best dance.”

Tonight, Lauren and AJ will find out if they have made it to the final when the judges’ scores are combined with the public vote to decide who has to perform again in the dance off.

The Strictly Come Dancing results show airs tonight at 7.15pm on BBC One.

source: express.co.uk