Ellie Leach seen crying in new Strictly rehearsal room footage with Vito Coppola

Strictly Come Dancing winner Ellie Leach broke down in tears when she returned to the rehearsal studios ahead of the new series of the BBC dance competition.

The 23-year-old Coronation Street star was reunited with professional dancer Vito Coppolo as they readied themselves to perform as Strictly returned to the TV schedules on Saturday night. The pairing were looking to show the moves that won them the Glitterball Trophy last December, when Ellie became the youngest ever contestant to win the celebrated competition.

The soap star was due to dance the Paso Doble with Vito, which proved to be one of their most iconic dances when they performed it in week five of the 2023 series. At the time, it got scored a perfect ten from each of the four judges, with Motsi Mabuse hailing it as the ‘best’ dance of the series to that point.

Speaking in a piece to camera ahead of her return to the Strictly dancefloor, Ellie became emotional as she shared what the experience have done for her and what it would mean to recreate the spectacular dance. The actress said: “I am glad we’re doing the Paso Doble as the final dance. Everything about this dance just came together so perfectly.”

Ellie struggled to keep her emotions in check as her voice broke before wiping away tears while she added: “Getting emotional now. I honestly didn’t expect this to have such an effect on me personally.”

Pro dancer Vito was also emotional when he said: “I mean this is like the cherry on the cake, all the bruises and blisters, you have been so amazing, you are Strictly. You represent Strictly. You are the diamond, you are shining.”

As Strictly Come Dancing navigates it’s way through allegations of abuse from previous celebrity contestants, the BBC show’s reputation has been tarnished but Ellie has nothing but praise for the show that “changed my life.”

Reflecting on her life on Strictly, during an interview with the Yorkshire Post to promote her theatre production of the board game Cluedo, she said: “Strictly has changed my life. When I say that, I think that people are a little bit shocked as they think it is ‘just’ a dance competition, where it’s completely not like that.”

She continued: “It made me really, really learn a lot about myself and kind of change the way that I think about things. I think I genuinely do think that without Strictly I wouldn’t have said yes to maybe even doing Cluedo. When I got the call it sounded amazing, but I would have been very nervous to step out of my comfort zone, whereas now I’m kind of forcing myself to do that.”