Aston Merrygold was "shocked" to be given a four on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The former JLS star and his professional partner Janette Manrara exited the BBC One latin and ballroom competition on Sunday night (05.11.17) after landing himself in the dance off against Mollie King and AJ Pritchard and he has now spoken out for the first time about how "gutted" he was to get such a low mark from Craig Revel Horwood.
He said: "I’m honestly gutted, but you just have to take it on the chin. It’s such a brilliant show and I said from day one if I have to leave, I’m happy I got the chance to do it in the first place … When we got the four I laughed. I was like, ‘Is that a four?’ To me, it didn’t even feel as bad as that. It was just the shock of it."
Being in the dance off, Aston and Janette were forced to dance their Viennese Waltz and the performance split the judges as Darcey Bussell and Bruno Tonioli opted to save Aston, whilst Craig and head judge Shirley Ballas – who has the casting vote – chose to save Mollie.
And whilst Janette "respects" Craig’s opinion, she doesn’t agree with the score.
Speaking on BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two’, she added: "Everyone is entitled to an opinion, those scores are the judges’ opinions. I don’t agree at all with the score, but you have to respect his opinion, his number and thoughts and take it as it comes."
Aston had previously gushed about his experience on the show.
Speaking after his exit, he told host Tess Daly: "Honestly, every second of this, I’ve had friends who have done the show before and they’ve gone ‘you’re going to have the most amount of fun from start to finish whatever it is’ and honestly they weren’t lying! Everything, from this lady to every single person in here, these four judges, yourself, Claudia, all you amazing lot up there that I get to see and spend so much time with. I’ve made some amazing friends and honestly I’ve had the best time, it’s been amazing."