‘I fell at the final hurdle’: Will Mellor apologises to fans after being eliminated in BBC Strictly semi-final

Will Mellor has been axed from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing after an intense two-dance semi final, which saw the actor up against singer and presenter Fleur East in the dance-off.

The Coronation Street actor, 46, from Manchester, simply couldn’t hide his emotion as he appeared on It Takes Two with dance partner, Nancy Xu, 31, after the elimination.

When the judges made their final choices, Will was clearly upset and wiped away his tears as Nancy broke down beside him.

During the It Takes Two show, the pair broke down again whilst host Rylan Clark interviewed them about their time on the show.

Will said: “I was disappointed, I’d worked so hard and we’d got so far in the competition, the last thing I wanted to do was get it wrong that night.”

Rylan asked Nancy about how she felt about their position at the bottom of the leaderboard after Sunday’s live show. A disheartened Nancy said: “I felt awful, I can’t lie, for me he made me so proud. He did everything I asked him to do, we had so much fun.”

Nancy, who is in her second year on the BBC dance show, was also eliminated in the semi-final last year when she was partnered with CBBC presenter Rhys Stephenson.

When asked about the relationship that formed with Will during his Strictly journey, the latin dance champion said: “I looked forward every day to step into that dance studio to teach him a new dance and see his face, to see him not believe in himself and question himself.”

“Then slowly he would enjoy it and on Saturday night he would have a smile on his face! Thank you so much,” she added.

Will spoke of his gratitude for his dance partner, while admitting: “I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else. It’s been an unbelievable ride, we’ve made some amazing moments we can look back on.”

He added: “I am going to take from this, you can do things and test yourself, and take yourself out of your comfort zone every now and then, and you can achieve more than you think you can.”

The former Hollyoaks actor took to Twitter following the emotional chat on It Takes Two to address his exit at the semi-final stage of Strictly in a moving video.

He captioned the post: “My Strictly journey is over!”

In the video, Will said: “Sadly, I got voted out of the semi-final, and I didn’t make the final. I fell at the final hurdle - sorry about that for anybody who’d been voting for me, I gave it everything I got, I tried my best and it wasn’t enough.”

He continued: “But thank you all so much for your messages of support, the votes or anyone who’s got behind me - I really, really appreciate it, I mean it means alot!”

He went on to acknowledge how the “Strictly bubble” can consume you and explained that as you consistently train it becomes “all you think about.”

Before ending the video, he once again thanked his fans and wished them a happy Christmas.

He said: “I tried, I gave it everything, just wasn’t enough to get to that final - but thank you all so much and I just wanted to do a little video to say that I really appreciate all the support. Enjoy your Christmas everyone.”

Many Strictly fans took to social media following the elimination, as they pointed out that Fleur, who performed a Charleston again in the dance-off had poorly landed after a lift.

The fans argued Fleur’s second performance should be deemed worse in comparison to Will’s couple choice dance.

While judge Anton Du Beke chose to put Will and Nancy through to the final, his fellow judges Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood, and Shirley Ballas opted for Fleur and Vito.

The comments from the judges after the dance-off confused many fans, as they said “based on the dance-of performance,” which indicates that the better performance would be deemed successful.

One fan tweeted: “If Fleur made a mistake, why was Anton the only judge to call it out? Dance-off is meant to be judged on that dance NOT everything so far.”

Whilst another wrote: “Don’t agree with the results, don’t say you’re basing the decision on the dance-off and then ignore the mistakes made. Anton was the only person to judge the dance-off correctly tonight!”

The finalists, Hamza Yassin, Molly Rainford, Helen Skelton and Fleur East are now set to perform three dance routines, next week, in hopes of being crowned Strictly Come Dancing Champions of 2022.