Good Morning Britain's Richard says Strictly star was 'robbed' from final

19 December 2023 , 11:09

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Good Morning Britain's Richard says Strictly star was 'robbed' from final

Richard Madeley has claimed that Annabel Croft was 'robbed' from the Strictly Come Dancing final.

The tennis star, 57, recently competed on the hit BBC One dance competition with Johannes Radebe, 36, where they sadly just missed out on a spot in the final on Saturday night, which Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola won.

Talking on Tuesday's Good Morning Britain, presenter Richard, 67, was introducing their next guest, Bear Grylls. He said: "He's been giving pep talks to Strictly star Annabel Croft, who by the way was robbed, she should have been in the final! I told her that yesterday!"

Annabel sadly became the 10th celebrity eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing, leaving Bobby Brazier, Layton Williams and Ellie in the final, with the latter going on to win.

Richard Madeley has claimed that Annabel Croft was 'robbed' from the Strictly Come Dancing final (ITV)

The former tennis player lost out following a dance-off with EastEnders star Bobby, 20, and his professional dancer Dianne Buswell earlier this month. Annabel, whose husband tragically died earlier in the year, thanked her dance partner Johannes and told him he had given her 'a reason to get out of bed'.

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It comes as Annabel admitted she's 'sad' as she issued an upcoming tour update with pro partner Johannes on Monday. Despite her time on the show coming to an end, Annabel will be dancing once again on the Strictly Come Dancing Live! tour in 2024.

However, Annabel will sadly not be reunited with Johannes on the tour and instead will dance with Graziano Di Prima. Talking on Monday's Lorraine, the former contestant said of not dancing with Johannes: "We're both sad about it, Johannes has his own tour so he's promoting his own show. I think it was too close to this tour and his body also needs a rest, I'm sure his brain too. He needs to recharge his batteries.

Annabel sadly became the 10th celebrity eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing (PA)

"I think he's probably sad he couldn't make it work but I hear that term, 'keep dancing', and I now realise what that is because I do want to keep dancing so when I got the opportunity to do the tour, I thought: 'Oh wow, how wonderful to keep going!' But of course, I would have loved to have been with him [Johannes]."

Talking about being paired with Graziano, Annabel said: "Graziano is a very good friend of Johannes, they know each other very well. Of course, I've met him, been around Graziano through the whole show so it'll be different but I'm hoping a lot of fun as well!"

Olivia Wheeler