'She's my winner' - Strictly's Vito Coppola shares sweet support for Ellie Leach ahead of final

Virgin Radio

15 Dec 2023, 12:25

Strictly Come Dancing pro Vito Coppola has made quite the declaration about celeb partner Ellie Leach ahead of the Grand Final on Saturday (16th December). 

Coronation Street actress Ellie will team up with Vito one last time this weekend against Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin, and Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell, all in the bid to lift the Glitterball Trophy. 

There has been plenty of speculation about a potential romance between Ellie and Vito during their Strictly journey, and during the recent Strictly Come Dancing finalists press conference, Vito shared a heartwarming sentiment about his dance partner. 

“She's my winner since day one,” he told virginradio.co.uk and other press while sat next to the soap star. “The way she moves, and you work so hard. You are, really, you have been every single week, the winner, my winner, our winner.”

When quizzed about the romance rumours, Vito swerved the notion that there’s something more than dancing between the pair, and claimed they were both too busy to notice the whispers. 

He explained: “We are so into the rehearsal all day, we have so many things to think about, and choreography…After we finish, we have the time to eat fast enough and we nap a little bit because we need to take the energy to continue rehearsal. After we go home, we say like okay, let's just make sure that we go to eat and we go to sleep because the next day, we have to be again there, so we really are so focused on all this beautiful experience. 

“Words cannot describe how we are really enjoying every single second of this.”

The Strictly final will be comprised of nine dances in total, three from each couple, with a Favourite Dance, a Show Dance and a Judges’ Choice. 

Vito admitted he wanted their show dance to “represent our journey” in Strictly, adding: “We thought that the Show Dance has to be something that's representing our journey. We have to put a little bit of it all together. 

“We have this thing in Italy, a minestrone when you put all the vegetables in. The show has been minestrone, it means that there is a bit of  some dances…a bit a bit of salsa, some rumba. A little bit of all the dances but upgraded.”

Strictly Come Dancing: The Final will air live on Saturday 16th December at 7.00pm, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.