Strictly Come Dancing: Mollie King's partner AJ Pritchard forced to pull out of rehearsals due to illness

Mollie King has revealed that she’s rehearsed this week’s Strictly Come Dancing dance, a Cha-Cha, with three different partners after her professional dance partner, AJ Pritchard, was forced to skip rehearsals due to illness.

AJ is said to be bed ridden and “in a race against time” to perform during Saturday night’s live show, with Mollie left to rehearse the dance with various stand-ins whilst the 29 year old recovers.

A source told The Sun: “He really needs to lie down for the majority of the day as is temperature is up and down.

“He’s popping in every now and then to training to advise on the choreography.

“A back-up dancer called Patrick has stepped in and is dancing with Mollie.”

However, Mollie revealed on her Instagram page that it’s not just Patrick who she has been practising with, telling fans in her story: “So in two days I’ve danced the Cha-Cha with three different boys, AJ had to go home.”

She then introduced her fans to Patrick before sending a ‘get well soon’ message to AJ.

Earlier this month, AJ denied that he and Mollie are romantically involved in an exclusive chat with Yahoo Celeb UK, with the stars being surrounded by speculation that their relationship is more than it seems.

AJ told us: “She is very beautiful… We train 12 hours a day and it is always fun, time flies by.

“She’s a great student, she will try anything. She doesn’t say ‘no’ and for me, as long as she never says ‘I can’t do it’, that’s fantastic.

“Hopefully we can win, we take every week as an extra bonus and we are loving our time on Strictly.”

When quizzed on the romance rumours, AJ coyly replied: “What romance? Whose romance? You just kind of get used to the rumours.”

Cheekily referencing paparazzi photos that showed him and Mollie walking arm in arm with hot drinks last week, he continued: “You go for a coffee break and get a nice warm cup of tea on a cold day.

“We do laugh about it in the studio and we have a great time.”

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