Stacey Dooley reveals she was sure YouTuber Joe Sugg had won 'Strictly'

Strictly Come Dancing champion Stacey Dooley has admitted she was so sure that Joe Sugg was going to win, she gave him a pep talk about enjoying his moment as the results were read out.

The BBC documentary maker stormed to a win on Saturday night with partner Kevin Clifton despite being bottom of the leaderboard, but said that despite her popularity she thought YouTube star Sugg would be the clear winner.

In an interview with This Morning, Dooley said: “I think we’d accepted we weren’t going to win. I honestly, honestly thought Joe had it in the bag, I was like, ‘it’s Joe Sugg’s night’.

“When we were coming down the stairs I took Joe and I said, ‘Just enjoy it, soak it all up, because it won’t happen again’, so I was pep talking him. I felt really calm.”

She added: “People always play it really earnest like, ‘who, me?’, but I really didn’t think I would win. There were so many amazing dancers I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself.”

Sugg had been expected to do very well in the vote thanks to his huge numbers of YouTube fans, while the two other finalists Ashley Roberts and Faye Tozer were joint top from the judges’ scores with three perfect 40s each.

Clifton agreed: “We were definitely expecting Joe and Dianne (Buswell) to win, and then when (judge) Craig (Revel Horwood) killed us a bit with the scores in the Showdance and then didn’t give us the 10 for Paso so we were bottom of the leaderboard I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no chance’.

“I looked over at my mum and dad just before the results and went ah well, and they made the same face so it was a complete shock.”

Clifton had hit back at Revel Horwood’s harsh scoring of their dances on the night and explained: “He seems to always be really hard in the final and he always seems to come down really hard on me and my partner so I was like no, not again.

“I saw him at the wrap party afterwards and he just laughed.”

Dooley said she had taken full advantage of the show’s wrap party to let her hair down after working so hard.

She said: “I left at 5am and I don’t even booze, I was just on the stage showing off with the trophy.”

Now, Sugg appears to have confirmed that he is in a relationship with his dance partner Buswell with a sweet Instagram post about her.

Asked about their romance, Dooley said: “I love Joe, Joe’s my boy, Dianne’s a sweetheart as well actually.”

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