Strictly's 'emotional' Nikita Kanda suffered painful injury hours before exit

09 October 2023 , 22:55

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Strictly's 'emotional' Nikita Kanda suffered painful injury hours before exit

Strictly Come Dancing's Nikita Kanda revealed she suffered a painful injury just hours before her elimination from the hit BBC One dance show.

The radio presenter, 28, was the latest celebrity to leave the dance floor on Sunday night with pro partner Gorka Márquez. On Monday's episode of Strictly spin-off, It Takes Two, Nikita and Gorka gave their first exit interview. Nikita admitted: "I'm really sad – I feel quite emotional. It’s been an emotional and fun journey, but I’m so sad that our time got cut short."

She joked over working with Gorka: "We were like two kids in school, so it was quite ironic we did Clueless. If we went school together, we’d be in detention." Talking about playing Clueless main character, Cher, Nikita said: "I had so much fun [playing Cher] it's so iconic. I’m a 90s baby so I really took the role on – Gorka helped me each week with my confidence."

However, Nikita was quick to issue a painful injury update, revealing: "I even hurt my foot the day before but we powered through – I’ve got a bandage on now so it’s not very glamorous underneath all the sparkle!" This weekend, Nikita became the second contestant to leave Strictly Come Dancing as she faced Zara McDermott in the dreaded dance off.

Strictly Come Dancing's Nikita Kanda revealed she suffered a painful injury just hours before her elimination from the hit BBC One dance show (BBC)

With three votes in favour of Zara and pro partner Graziano Di Prima, they won the majority vote meaning that Nikita and Gorka would be leaving the competition. Head Judge Shirley Ballas also agreed that she would have decided to save Zara and Graziano.

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Nikita said after her fate was revealed: "I don’t want to leave yet, I feel like I’ve let him down. I’ve had the best time and I love all my Strictly family, I’m going to miss you all. This has been a dream come true, I’m so grateful. I’ve got to say the biggest thankyou to Gorka, he has been the biggest support and I’ve had the best time ever."

While Gorka added: "I am beyond proud of her, for someone that doesn’t have any dance experience or performance experience to come on this show and dance in front of millions of people – for three weeks, I think it’s incredible.

"You should be very proud of yourself, you have never let me down and I am very proud of you. This show is going to teach you so many things about yourself that you can take with you and I take incredible memories. I’ve never laughed so much in three weeks than I did with you!"

Strictly Come Dancing continues every week on BBC One. *Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

Olivia Wheeler