The Strictly Come Dancing 2018 duo reflected on their time on the BBC dance show, where they spilled their behind-the-scenes tactics to a good performance. Lauren Steadman, 25, opened up on her ways to stay calm ahead of taking to the dance floor and gushed over AJ, 23, while doing so. The Paralympian was asked if she notices the crowd when performing, to which she replied: “All I see is AJ’s smile.” Taken back by the comment, AJ replied: “Oh cheeky, I like that one – I’ll take that.”
The professional dancer also went on to jokingly say Lauren “scares” him when she’s being quiet.
Lauren added to The Telegraph’s Talking Strictly podcast: “AJ says before a performance I’m a bit too quiet.”
He replied: “You don’t talk and it scares me. I don’t like it.”
The dancing duo were the eleventh pair to be voted out of the show earlier this month.
The pair battled it out in the dreaded dance-off against Ashley Roberts and Pasha Kovalev, with the latter being saved by the four judges.
Last month, AJ said he was “protective” over Lauren admitting they had grown close.
He told The Mirror: “I am very protective of Lauren because we have worked so closely together.
“There are different things that she will talk about in training that she would never talk about on camera.
“It’s for that reason that we have grown so close together and we will be friends for life and who knows in the future.
“You never know what is going to happen.”
Elsewhere this month, AJ and Lauren discussed their final dance, a samba, on Strictly: It Takes Two.
AJ told host Zoe Ball: “Honestly, this dance for me was about personality, going out there and having fun and that’s exactly what happened.
“As you can see Lauren is just… look at that smile, it’s infectious.”
Reflecting on her last performance, Lauren added: “I actually feel super happy and looking back, we have had so much fun.
“And I’ve loved every second; never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever look so elegant on the floor.
She then turned to AJ and gushed: “You did that! You made me like that.”