Fleur East breaks her silence on 'Strictly Come Dancing' restart drama

Watch: Fleur East explains Strictly 'restart' drama

Fleur East has broken her silence after it emerged that she was allowed to restart her dance-off performance on Strictly.

The former X Factor star and her pro partner Vito Coppola beat EastEnders actor James Bye and his partner Amy Dowden in the dance-off at the weekend after ending up in the bottom two.

But it has since been revealed that there was a fall and that East restarted her routine.

Read more: Strictly star Fleur East allowed to restart dance-off routine after 'incident with a prop'

She and Coppola addressed the situation during an appearance on Loose Women, explaining that they were ready to dance on after Coppola's tumble, until producers stopped the music.

Coppola said: “Basically what happened, in the first few seconds of our number, I just fell down on the chair. Literally was a bad fall. Everyone was gasping, but I showed them I was okay and able to restart so thank you - I’m fine, I’m here today so all good.”

Panellist Denise Welch chimed in: “It was health and safety, wasn’t it? That’s why you did it again.”

Coppola went on: “We were continuing, because we always say to each other, ‘If anything happens, let’s just keep going, keep continuing’ and literally I was trying to stand up and continue, and when I turned around she was spinning the wheel…”

East added: “I was ready. I was like, the show must go on. And then production decided to stop the music. We were like, ‘Oh, okay’.”

The BBC has said the restart was permitted because the pair had “not begun to dance” before the incident occurred.

In a statement shared with the PA news agency, a BBC spokesperson said the show was stopped “as a matter of urgency”.

“After an incident with a prop at the beginning of Fleur and Vito’s dance-off performance, the decision was made to halt proceedings to check they were not injured, as a matter of urgency,” the spokesperson said.

Read more: Will Mellor rules out other reality shows after Strictly

“As they had not begun to dance before the incident occurred, it was decided they could start the performance again, once it was confirmed they were fit to do so.”

Loose Women is on weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and ITV Hub.