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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

Joey Essex fuels Vanessa Bauer dating rumours as he leans in for kiss after performance

Joey Essex tried to sneak in a little peck with his professional dance partner Vanessa Bauer during their Dancing On Ice routine.

The reality star and his partner chose to dance to High School Musical's iconic hit Breaking Free for movie week.

Towards the end of the routine, Joey leaned in to give a hesitant Vanessa a little kiss as she leaned away.

Joey and Vanessa have been hit with dating rumours in recent weeks and the almost-kiss added fuel to the fire.

Vanessa laughed and seemed flustered as she leaned away from Joey.

Although he recently suffered an injury on his leg, Joey was confident on the ice on Sunday evening.

Joey and Vanessa completed a High School Musical routine (ITV)

He even had the Judges' Challenge to worry about. They had to complete a freestyle jump with two feet leaving the ice during the routine.

Judging panel Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean, Oti Mabuse and Ashley Banjo were impressed with the routine and scored them handsomely.

The pair explained to the judges that they slightly changed the routine due to his sudden injury earlier in the week.

He leaned in for a kiss at the end of the routine (ITV)

Joey managed to earn 32.5 out of 40 points for the High School Musical themed performance.

Unsurprisingly, the kiss was brought up and Joey jokingly said: "First kiss on live TV, eh?"

Joey recently sparked concern after giving fans a glimpse of a nasty injury.

He revealed he was lying up in bed with a wound to his leg.

Joey recently injured his leg (joeyessex/instagram)
He seemed confident on the ice despite the injury (Matt Frost/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

The injury appeared so bad that Joey added an ice skate emoji over his bare foot to shield fans from what lay beneath.

While the upper half of Joey's leg was wrapped up in a black bandage.

"Had better days," he added as the caption.

So far Joey and his partner Vanessa Bauer have become one of the most talked about couples of the 2023 series for their antics off the ice as much as on.

After refusing to comment directly on rumours they are dating, Vanessa was papped leaving Joey's £3.3million house this week before the duo headed out for a power breakfast together.

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