Eliminated Strictly stars reunite for cosy birthday bash with family

15 November 2023 , 12:37

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Eliminated Strictly stars reunite for cosy birthday bash with family

Former Strictly Come Dancing star Adam Thomas reunited with his professional dance partner Luba Mushtuk and pulled out all the stops to celebrate her 34th birthday.

Swapping the glitz and glamour for a cosy party at his Manchester home, Luba took to social media to show fans the effort her Strictly pal and his family went to in order to make her feel special. Posting a number of videos, Adam,35, is seen singing Happy Birthday on his ukulele, as Luba, his wife Caroline and his kids cheered on. And in another video fans saw Luba presented with large, what looked like, a vanilla flavoured birthday cake. Over the video, Adam wrote: "Love this girl @lubamusctuk happy bday."

Adam Thomas throws a birthday bash for dance partner Luba Mushtuk

Another post was of a picture of Caroline Thomas and Luba which was captioned: "Birthday cuddles." Luba and Adam were eliminated from the competition earlier this month after losing out to Angela Rippon and her dance partner Kai Widdrington in the gruelling dance off. At the time, it was believed by viewers that Adam was unfairly booted off the BBC dance show and former Strictly dancer James Jordan waded in on the favouritism row - after Adam's exit.

Speaking on Hello's Strictly The Truth podcast, he said: "This was an unanimous decision. Every single judge said they would have saved Angela. Did they do that to almost justify the decision? I would have saved Adam. They got that totally wrong. Krishnan should have been bottom of the leader board. I have no idea how they put him fourth from bottom."

He added: "It was by far the worst dance of the night. We're letting Krishnan get away with getting 8s yet Adam does a really difficult dance and does a really great job, but it's almost as if they crucified Adam for not having enough rumba content. Yet Layton, who didn't have masses of jive, content got tens. You can't do for one what you don't do for another. I feel Adam was stitched up. That's my personal feeling. Adam was clearly better."

EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likeness

Adam sings Happy Birthday to Luba (Instagram/ @lubamushtuk)

Luba was presented with a birthday cake by Adam and his family (Instagram/ @lubamushtuk)

James, who quit the show in 2013, went on to say James that Angela "made a lot of mistakes" throughout her performance and she was "wobbling quite a bit". He said he was amazed that none of the judges said anything about the newsreader's performance, adding: "It's almost as if they want to get her through, they're like 'let's get Angela to Blackpool'."

Speaking about his exit a tearful Adam told It Takes Two host Fleur East: "I knew going up against Angela we'd be in trouble. She’s amazing, but if anyone was going to send us home I'm happy it was Angela, she’s amazing. She is so elegant and I am really happy for her." At the time, fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, that they felt Adam was scored unfairly. One person said: "Only caught the dance off of this week’s #Strictly and it was clearly the wrong decision?"

Another wrote: "Sorry, wrong decision. Adam had a lot of potential to keep getting better, his scores have been consistently climbing. Angela is great, especially considering her age, but she has a lot of experience, and realistically she won’t get any better than she is now. #strictly." A third fan wrote: "No hate to Angela at all, because I think she is getting too much negativity from people. But I do think Adam danced better in the dance off, Angela's waltz was very lumpy. Sorry but I think the judges made the wrong decision."

Lucretia Munro