Entertainment

Ruth Langsford: I cried all day during Strictly struggle

The TV star got the boot at the weekend.
The TV star got the boot at the weekend. The TV star got the boot at the weekend.

Ruth Langsford has admitted there were times when she cried all day while competing on Strictly Come Dancing.

The Loose Women star and her professional partner Anton Du Beke got the boot from the competition on Sunday night after losing out in the dance-off to Paralympian Jonnie Peacock and his partner Oti Mabuse.

She said she felt like her fellow panellists on the chat show had been through the experience with her, telling the ITV programme: “You’ve all lived it with me.

“You see me coming in every day and (say) ‘How are you getting on?’ and I said ‘I cried all day yesterday’.

Langsford admitted she knew she was at risk of leaving the show at the weekend, saying: “The foxtrot and me didn’t get on very well. I told you ‘I’m finding the foxtrot really hard’ and then I messed up in the dance-off and made a big mistake, I laughed.”

Despite the heartbreak of leaving, the TV star said she had no regrets about doing the show.

She said: “It was such an experience, I’m so glad I said yes because when they asked me I thought ‘ooh can I fit this in with work?’

“I’m so glad I said yes, it was everything i thought it would be with bells on, it’s exciting, it’s terrifying.

“I made a great friend in Anton, he was the best best partner I could have had, he was so patient, kind and funny.

“We laughed and laughed. I wanted it to be fun because I’m not a dancer, I’ve got no experience, I thought ‘I know I’m not going to be brilliant’, but I think I did improve and I loved it.”

However, her fellow panellist Coleen Nolan said she thought Langsford has been treated unfairly by the judging panel, singling out comments made by Bruno Tonioli.

She said: “I thought they were really really particularly cruel to you this week. Some of the comments, I thought they were out of order, I didn’t think a lot of them were constructive criticism, I just thought some of them, especially Bruno’s actually, I thought was nasty.”

Langsford was comforted when she was presented with a cake from her co-stars, iced with the words: “You’re our Strictly champion.”