Strictly's Shayne Ward admits it was 'sad ending' as he says he knew he'd be eliminated

What did you miss?

Shayne Ward has admitted he knew he was going to get eliminated from Strictly this week.

The former X Factor star received his marching orders from the BBC ballroom show on Sunday, 10 November. It was his third time in the dance-off, but he said this time he just knew his name was going to be called out.

Speaking on spin-off show It Takes Two, he revealed the thing that “guts” him the most is that he believes he had yet to reach his full potential on the dancefloor.

What, how and why?

Ward and his pro dance partner Nancy Xu ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard after Saturday’s show, with a score of 30 out of 40. They landed in the dance-off against Wynne Evans and Katya Jones but the judges chose to save opera star Evans. Judges Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse were in Ward’s corner but Anton Du Beke chose to save Evans and head judge Shirley Ballas evidently agreed, sending Ward home.

“Weirdly enough, I kind of felt like this was it,” Ward said on It Takes Two.

He told host Fleur East: “One thing that Nancy would always say to me is just, never give up, which I didn’t — we knew we were going to give it our all. But sometimes you trust your gut and I kind of felt like, you know, when you can hear that heartbeat going, my name is going to be called out."

He went on: "I always turn to Nancy and say, 'It’s going to be OK.' And it was. It's OK.

"But yes, sad ending though."

What else did Shayne Ward say on It Takes Two?

The star revealed one reason he was disappointed is that he thought he had a lot more to give in the competition.

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“I’m going to miss it,” he said. “I am going to miss Nancy so much. It’s amazing to see how far we have come together and that she was able to turn these two left feet into one left, one right."

Ward went on: “I think the thing that kind of guts me the most is that, yes I wanted to get to Blackpool for my mum to come and see me, but I think more than anything it was I knew that my full potential wasn’t reached yet and I felt like I still had so much more left in me to learn from Nancy, so much more I wanted to showcase.

"That’s the thing I am going to miss so much.”

Strictly: It Takes Two airs on BBC Two at 6.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One at 6.45pm on Saturday.