Former Coronation Street star Ellie Leach opened up about the challenging relationship scrutiny that she faced while filming Strictly Come Dancing.

The Coronation Street actress, 23, and her pro partner, Vito Coppola, 31, won the glitterball trophy (which she’s since broken) after going up in the final against Bobby Brazier with Dianne Buswell and Layton Williams with Nikita Kuzmin.

Over their time on the BBC One competition, the couple captured the public’s hearts and sent romance rumours swirling, with multiple clues teasing that the infamous Strictly curse had struck.

Earlier this year, during an episode of recently-axed ITVBe reality series Drama Queens — a fly-on-the-wall documentary that followed the lives of various soap stars behind the scenes — Ellie spoke to her mum Karen about life on Strictly.

The Faye Windass star said: ‘I think that doing Strictly opened my eyes to being like… in a fishbowl.

‘I didn’t realise that every single thing you did would be put in the papers.’

She added: ‘It’s upsetting that people believe what they read. Nine times out of ten it isn’t true.’

At one point it was reported that she was in a relationship with fellow Strictly and soapland star Bobby Brazier, 21, who plays Freddie Slater in EastEnders.

The two apparently grew closer, whilst competing in the hit dancing competition.

They also took part in the arena show earlier this year, but are said to have since gone their separate ways.

According to reports, they realised that they had been spending less time together after returning home from the tour, and decided to call time on their relationship.

‘Love blossomed between them when they were in close quarters on the tour, but once that ended they both spent much less time together,’ an insider claimed.

‘That gave them space to think about the future, which is likely to take them in very different directions over the coming year or two.’

‘So they decided the best thing to do was quit while they were ahead and while they were still pals, because they both really cherish the friendship they have,’ the source added to The Sun.

This article was originally published on 11th April 2024.