Amy Dowden has suggested that she wasn’t surprised by the controversial comments she received from former Strictly Come Dancing professional Brendan Cole.
Cole’s fellow professional dancer Dowden, 36, was the first to be eliminated from the current series of Strictly for the second year running, after she and celebrity hair stylist Chris Appleton, 43, ended up in the dance-off.
While fans of the BBC competition were gutted to see her go, Cole, 50, said in an interview last week that he felt Dowden “hasn’t been up to the challenge” of training another celebrity.
“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,” he told Sky Vegas. “One can do the maths on that.”
He continued: “To be a pro on Strictly is a big job, and one has to be up to the challenge. Amy has not been up to the challenge, in my opinion.”
Dowden, who has been open about her health struggles after undergoing various treatments for breast cancer – including chemotherapy and two preventative mastectomies, has now addressed Cole’s comments in her own interview.
“I’ll be honest, what did you expect from him?” she told The Mirror. “It’s fine – I’ve never been brought up to be personal, and in this day and age especially I think it’s so important to be kind, and to think about the next generation.”
She continued: “I always try to use my platform in the right way – I work with various charities. But also I want to be the right kind of role model.”
Last week, Dowden was praised for what appeared to be her initial response to Cole’s remarks, in which she shared a tongue-in-cheek video to Instagram.
The dancer posed in a silver dress in her Strictly dressing room while blowing a kiss to the camera, miming the opening line to Mariah Carey’s hit 2009 single “Obsessed”, where the pop star asks: “And I was like, why are you so obsessed with me?”
She captioned the post, “If you know, you know,” and added the hashtags, #bekind and #inaworldyoucanbeanythingbekind.
Fans praised Dowden, calling her an “icon” and “one in a million”.
“Amy girl none of us agree with that bitter man,” one fan said. “We love you queen!!!!”
Dowden confessed to feeling “gutted” after leaving the competition so early on, telling spin-off show It Takes Two: “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 said.
“I honestly think there was so much more to come.”
Dame Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon became the third couple to leave Strictly on Sunday, after the Paralympian and her professional partner ended up in the dance-off against House of the Dragon’s Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.
Gavin and Stacey star Melanie Walters was voted off in the second week with her professional partner Aljaz Škorjanec.
Twelve couples remain, with fans hoping that Australian pop star Delta Goodrem will return next week after being forced to miss Saturday night’s show due to a rib injury.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One next Saturday at 6.30pm.
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