Strictly Come Dancing pro Amy Dowden has shared a not-so-veiled message after inadvertently finding herself in the headlines last week.
Earlier in the current series of Strictly, Amy – who has been with Strictly for almost a decade – became the first professional to be eliminated from the competition for the second year running, alongside her celebrity partner Chris Appleton.
Around this time, Brendan Cole, an outspoken former Strictly dancer who left the show under something of a cloud in 2018, made some disparaging comments about the Welsh pro in the press.
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“To be a pro on Strictly is a big job and one has to be up to the challenge,” he said in an interview with Sky Vegas. “Amy has not been up to the challenge, in my opinion.
“I don’t think Amy’s been doing a very good job for the last few years and she’s been out first for the last few years. One can do the maths on that.”
Of course, Strictly fans will know that in 2023, she took a year out from competing on the long-running BBC dance show while undergoing treatment for cancer.
She returned the following series, but was forced to bow out midway through due to a foot injury.
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While Amy has not commented explicitly on what Brendan has had to say about her, she did share a post on Instagram over the weekend that many have interpreted as her indirect response.
In the clip, she’s seen lip syncing to Mariah Carey’s spoken-word intro to her song Obsessed, mouthing to camera: “Why are you so obsessed with me?”
She then blew a kiss and showed off some low-key dance moves, captioning the post: “If you know you know…”
“In a world [where] you can be anything, be kind,” she also hash-tagged her video.
Last week, Amy admitted she was heartbroken that she and Chris had been sent home first by the Strictly judges.
“It seems to be my luck the last few years,” she observed. “But my heart is only breaking because I don’t get to dance with [Chris] on Monday.
“But, I get a friend for life, and that’s what’s going to heal my broken heart.”
“From the first day to dancing on Saturday night, [Chris] grew and grew and grew [in confidence] and I’m just gutted that we didn’t get the chance to continue,” she later wrote on Instagram.
However, she revealed that she and Chris have continued to dance together, sharing a video of them recreating moves from the film Dirty Dancing on Sunday.
