King voted off Strictly after presenters hint at romance

MOLLIE KING has been voted off Strictly Come Dancing after presenters hinted at rumours of a romance with her dance partner.

The pop star left the show after landing at the bottom of the leaderboard on Saturday for her samba, despite scoring her highest score of the series so far for her other dance, a waltz.

But whispers of a secret relationship with her partner AJ Pritchard were fuelled after presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman joked about the pair’s closeness during the show.

Introducing their dance, Daly said they were performing a “romantic waltz” – prompting Winkleman to respond: “I think we’re all agreed, it’s the right time to talk about the elephant in the room.”

Daly replied: “What, you mean, are Mollie and AJ a couple or not?” to gasps from the audience. However, the joke ended with an elephant sound-effect as Winkleman said “No – that elephant in the room. I’ll get him.”

Winkleman has previously referred to the pair’s closeness. During a conversation in one of the earlier shows about the many hours they spend rehearsing, she said: “And only half of that time is spent kissing” before adding “I’m joking! I’m joking!”

Last night, the Saturdays star narrowly missed out on a place in the final after losing the dance-off to Gemma Atkinson.

King told Daly that Atkinson and her partner Aljaz Skorjanec “totally deserved” their place as they had “danced their socks off ”.

King added: “Spending all this time with AJ I feel so lucky. So just a huge thank you to everyone who has voted us through, and to AJ who has got somebody who has got two left feet to this point – he is an absolute legend.”