Pete Wicks says he's received 'abuse' over Strictly as he responds to backlash

What did you miss?

Pete Wicks has said he's faced "abuse" over the fact he has made it to the semi-finals of Strictly.

The reality star and his pro partner Jowita Przystal have kept sailing through each week on the BBC ballroom competition, despite often ending up towards the bottom of the leaderboard. There has been a backlash, with some people claiming Wicks doesn't deserve to still be in the competition when better dancers have gone home.

It was brought up on spin-off It Takes Two, with host Janette Manrara asking for Wicks' thoughts on the "criticism" he has faced. He replied that "abuse" would be a better way to describe it.

What, how and why?

Wicks was on the BBC show on Thursday, 5 December and Manrara said: "Pete we need to talk about this, because there has been some criticism online about you still being in this competition, which is bizarre to me, but what do you have to say to that?"

"Criticism is probably a light word, I think abuse would be better," the star replied.

He went on: "But it is what it is. You can't please everyone. I am not here to please everyone, I am here to try and learn something. I am just a bloke who is just having a go at something."

"If I listened to all the negative stuff then I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning," Wicks admitted.

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"But on the plus side there has been loads of really lovely things said so it is what it is. It’s not nice to hear."

What else did Pete Wicks say on It Takes Two?

The Towie star also revealed how he feels "vulnerable" being on the ballroom show.

"I have done TV for 11 years, I have done all sorts of things and I have never felt as vulnerable as I do on this," he said. "Every week it doesn’t get any easier.

"I am quite a confident person but I have never felt less confident doing something in my life."

Wicks and Manrara also talked about how much the star had improved during the contest. But he joked that he could only see that he had gone from being a zero to a one.

"At the beginning I was God awful but here we are!" he said.

It Takes Two airs on BBC One on weekdays at 6.30pm.

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on Saturday night at 6.30pm.