Kevin Clifton: Anneka Rice speaks out on dance partner’s last minute move with Alex Scott

Strictly Come Dancing 2019 pro Neil Jones, 37, was forced to pull out of dancing with Alex Scott, 35, last weekend due to an injury, and Kevin Clifton, 37, stepped in to replace him.

The latter’s former dancer partner Anneka Rice, 61, has now revealed what she thought about seeing the pro dancing with somebody else this series.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk at the Pride Of Britain Awards, the ex contestant said: “I was so proud, he is my fourth son, so I felt motherly pride and swelling to be honest.”

On whether she was jealous watching Kevin on the dance floor with another celebrity, she added: “No not at all, I genuinely just felt really proud of him.”

Anneka was the second celebrity to be voted out of the show after her Kill Bill-themed performance in Movie Week.

The mother-of-three went on to say that despite her early exit, her former dance partner made her love dancing and she hopes to dance with him again.

She added: “I really, really hadn’t danced in my life.

“What Kevin got me doing, especially with the Waltz, was amazing. Ballroom was my dance, I wasn’t so good with the others.”

Following the low scores from her last performance on the show, Anneka Rice vented her frustration in a backstage video.

In view of Strictly’s 775,000 Instagram followers, she said to the camera: “It’s a bit disappointing because, honestly, I’ve had blood all over my limbs and I am bruised all round.”

Kevin added: “We didn’t half work for it this week.”

“I mean, that’s the annoying thing,” she chimed in. “We put quite a lot of work into that — hours!”

“Well, I am proud of you and what you did and all the work you put in,” her dance partner told her reassuringly.

That night, the dancing duo ended up in the dreaded dance-off alongside David James and his professional partner Nadiya Bychkova.

Sadly for the pair, judges Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonilo chose to save David and Nadiya.

Kevin later addressed Anneka’s exit on his podcast The Kevin Clifton Show.

He told listeners: “I just wanted to say a massive thank you to any of you who voted for me and Anneka Rice on this weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing.

“Anneka comes into Strictly with zero experience of dance, she’s never danced.”

“She told me when she was about six she went to a ballet class but got thrown out of the ballet class because she was completely useless,” he added, laughing.

“And she was told she’s never going to be good enough, she’s too stiff and all the rest of it.”

He added “She’s really into dance but never felt she could do it because of what happened when she was a kid.”

Strictly Come Dancing continues this Saturday on BBC One.

source: express.co.uk