As this year's Strictly Come Dancing couples prepare for the eagerly-anticipated movie week, reports have swirled that tensions between some couples are running high backstage.
Katie McGlynn and her partner Gorka Maquez are alleged to have clashed over the amount of training time the soap star has had to give up to film Hollyoaks in Liverpool.
Gorka, 31, complained last week they had "no hours to train", saying: "If you achieve what you do with no experience and no hours to train, I can't wait to see the rest."
And the couple are not the first ones on the show whose backstage bust-ups have threatened to overshadow their performance in the competition.
The Mirror casts an eye on some of Strictly's biggest spats ever.
Irish singer pair-up was 'punishment'
Kristina Rihanoff, 44, was often paired up with hunky celebs on Strictly and later had relationships with some of them.
She went out with her 2009 partner, boxer Joe Calzaghe, 49 and had a child with her 2013 partner rugby star Ben Cohen, 43.
In 2015 she was partnered with a much older celebrity in the shape of Irish crooner Daniel O’Donnell, 59.
She was unhappy about her pair-up and saw it as a “punishment” for her past romances, according to judge Craig Revel Horwood.
He told Woman Magazine: “When she first got paired with him I think she was gutted!
“But it was rather obvious she wasn’t going to get a hot, young celeb after everything that has happened.”
Bullying
Red Dwarf actor Danny John-Jules allegedly was allegedly given a final warning by show bosses for “bullying” his dance partner Amy Dowden.
He is rumoured to clashed with Amy during training - angrily telling her: “I’m the star, not you” - causing her storm out in tears.
She is said to have responded to being berated by sobbing to BBC producers: “I can’t go on with him any more” – before later reconciling with the actor
Sources said Amy was left in tears during training, and stormed out when he at one point angrily told her: “I’m the star, not you.”
“Danny swears and shouts at Amy a lot. She’s in bits,' claimed the insider.
Later Danny claimed they had a “difference of opinion” but had not argued.
The actor added he’d secretly been forced to dance with a choreographer’s assistant for two weeks rather than Amy, as she’d been injured.
Racial slurs
Back in 2009 when current Strictly judge Anton Du Beke was a dancer on the show, it was reported he had made a racial slur about his actor dance partner Laila Rouass, who has Indian ancestry.
He is said to have branded her a “p***” during a one-on-one training session - causing her to leave the studio in tears
Anton also made a joke about her catsuit live on air and allegedly once asked her, “You’re not a terrorist, are you?”, The Sun reports.
He later apologised, saying: “I am not a racist and I do not use racist language.
“During our rehearsals, Laila and I have exchanged a great deal of banter – entirely in jest – and two weeks ago there was an occasion where this term was used between the two of us."
Rouass accepted his apology for the comment and insisted she was “really enjoying” dancing with Anton.
Death threats
This Morning's Fern Britton claimed her pro dance partner Artem Chigvintsev “kicked” and “shoved” her during training, and even once told her: “Go home before I kill you.”
Speaking at an event hosted by The Times newspaper, she said: "He would look at my feet and just kick me or shove me.
He was like, 'Shut your face. Go home before I kill you.' "
Fern made light of his "kill" comment, admitting she joked with him about it.
She added: "I would say, 'Oh please just kill me, it would be easier.' Or what was his other one? 'If you go for a cup of tea now, I will blow off like an atomic bomb.' I thought, well I won’t correct him on that one."
But Artem insisted her claims were not true.
He said: “I believe I treated Fern with respect and genuine care, and these claims about me are the opposite of everything I believe in and the person I am.”
