Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin looked closer than ever as they left the taping of It Takes Two together on Monday night amid a storm of speculation that they may be more than just dance partners.
The 19-year-old daughter of firey tempered chef Gordon Ramsey is paired with 23-year-old dance professional Nikita as they battle to win the glitter ball trophy on Strictly Come Dancing.
But rumours abound that the infamous ‘Strictly curse’ has struck the couple after they shared a number of friendly photos and videos on social media – prompting Nikita’s girlfriend, Nicole Wirt, to leave a cryptic message on a post seemingly warning: “don’t be fooled”.
While Tilly has been adamant that there is nothing going on between her and the Ukrainian dance hunk, the pair certainly looked affectionate on Monday night.
Tilly and Nikita had been making an appearance on the spin-off show It Takes Two when they were spotted laughing and smiling together as they left the studios in London.
The pair had their arms around each other and were beaming at each other as they left the studios after fielding questions from show hosts Janette Manrara and Rylan Clark-Neal.
On Monday, Tilly insisted she was focused on dancing and was keeping her romantic life clear while competing on the show.
She told New! magazine: “Yes, I am single but I’m here to focus on dancing.
“I’d have been crazy to say no to Strictly Come Dancing. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and most importantly I really want to learn to dance.”
Her comments came after Nikita’s girlfriend of five years liked a social media post about Tilly training with Tilly – before abruptly retracting the ‘like’.
And she also posted a split-screen photo of her own featuring a solo person on one side of the image with a caption reading: “The support” and a group of people on the other side of the image with the caption: “The congratulations”.
She added the words: “Don’t be fooled” along with an emoji of a face with a finger over it’s lips.
Meanwhile, Tilly and Nikita looked like they were growing close as they answered questions posed by fans on Instagram.
Asked “Who is a better tiktok dancer you or Tilly? Nikita threw his Strictly co-star – who made a name for herself by making TikTok videos of herself dancing with dad Gordon – under the bus.
He laughed: “I would say that is me. Isn’t it? Come on. You can’t compete on TikTok with me. I am the TikTok queen.
The next question was “How many languages do you speak?” which Nikita deemed was a question directed at Tilly.
Giggling, Tilly replied: “Well after today I speak about five because he has been shouting at me in Italian, German, Russian and English. And Ukrainian.”
Asked how old they were, the pair joked that Nikita is 79 and Tilly is 46 – while they also revealed they enjoy drinking espresso shots and eating easy peeler satsumas together.
Strictly Come Dancing continues on BBC One on Saturday night at 6:45pm.
