ITV Loose Women panel rushes to support BBC Strictly Come Dancing star after fan backlash

Nancy Xu has spoken out to defend her BBC Strictly Come Dancing co-star after an "upsetting" backlash. The BBC pro has discussed fans criticising her co-star and celebrity partner, Shayne Ward, as Strictly Come Dancing continues each weekend.

Coronation Street alum Shayne, who won the ITV The X Factor, has been defended by the pro dancer on ITV Loose Women. On Thursday, the pair faced questions about Ward's "confidence" once more during an appearance on ITV's Loose Women, with Xu doing her best to alter the public's perception. "It's never nice, it's never nice being in the bottom two," Shayne said.

The singer and actor went on and added: "I was gutted because we worked so hard all week in the rehearsal hall and it's never easy. There are a lot of emotions... You never quite know how the public are going to take the dance but I love what (Nancy) choreographed but yeah, it was gutting to be in the bottom two."

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Ward went on to praise Xu for being "by my side 100 percent" and "awesome" before Denise Welch asked: "It must be hard for you, Nancy, because you must see it's not the nicest place to be and must be hard for you also."

Xu answered: "I must say that this guy has been working really hard to just show up on the television and make everyone think he finds it really easy to pull everything off." She went on: "But if you ever catch him in any time of rehearsals, he's still trying to remember his steps, he's trying to be the way he thinks will make me happy.

"He already makes me very proud as a dance teacher and as a dance partner. The respect from this guy to me, my job, is beyond everything. I'm super, super grateful." Denise's Loose Women co-star and fellow panellist Nadia Sawalha defended Ward.

Nadia asked: "We can be so unfair in this country with this... why should you be knocked for being confident?" Shayne told her: "I think for me is... I got a lovely comment at the very beginning that they loved my confidence which was great and I was so happy with that.

"But on the inside I was terrified... I think with social media, sometimes there are not so many kind (people) and they take that and run with it. I'm only human. I can block out a lot but there are some moments where it does seep through and I do show my human side and if it does affect me, it affects me and I get upset."