Strictly Come Dancing's Anton Du Beke addresses row with Shirley Ballas and says he was 'only teasing' her

Anton Du Beke has addressed his row with Shirley Ballas – stating he was “only teasing” her.

The Strictly Come Dancing pro, 53, had a heated discussion with the head judge, 59, on Saturday night after his rumba with Emma Barton, 42.

Ballas described Barton as “tall” and “elegant” and claimed that the EastEnders star has “everything that it takes to do a beautiful rumba” before warning the couple that she was about to take issue with their dance.

Du Beke then cut her off, telling Ballas: “There’s no need for you to say any more - you’re welcome to say nothing else.”

He later on disagreed with her over the amount of steps there were per beat, but Ballas responded: “The first thing required in any dance is movement to music, you have to stay on time!”

Now Du Beke has discussed the argument – and said it was all in jest.

Speaking on This Morning on Thursday with Holly Willoughby and Philip Schoefield, he said: “I just sort of laughed because I was sort of teasing her a bit really.

“She looked down at her pad and I thought 'Hello, there's a list. We're in big trouble here.' So I was just teasing her, really.”

He later added that Ballas – who is nicknamed the ‘Queen of Latin’ due to her numerous accolades she holds – an “absolutely incredible dancer”.

Du Beke and Barton received 22 points from the judges, placing them at the bottom of this week’s leaderboard.

But fans voted for the duo, meaning they did not have to compete in the dance off at the weekend.

Viscountess Emma Weymouth and Aljaž Škorjanec ended up being the couple to leave the show after going head to head with Mike Bushell and Katya Jones.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One at 6.50pm on Saturday, November 9.

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