It comes as the former Geordie Shore star had her best weekend of the BBC series so far in the famous ballroom

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Strictly Come Dancing star Vicky Pattison(Image: Vicky Pattison Instagram)

Vicky Pattison has said that the latest Strictly Come Dancing exit was a ‘hard pill to swallow’ as she paid tribute to her departing co-star.

The former Geordie Shore star had her best weekend of the series so far in the famous ballroom, bagging a near-perfect score alongside her professional dance partner Kai Widdrington.

They scored 39 points for their Tango to Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia during week seven of the BBC One dance contest on Saturday (November 8) night.

Vicky and Kai blew the judges away during Saturday night’s show with Craig Revel Horwood describing it as “perfect”, while Anton Du Beke said he was “a bit stunned” as it was “that good”.

While she topped the leaderboard, and secured her place in week eight of Strictly’s 2025 series, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey has become the sixth celebrity voted off of Strictly.

The Gladiator, known as Nitro,left the competition with professional partner Karen Hauer after losing Sunday night’s dance-off against Drag Race UK runner-up La Voix and Aljaz Skorjanec.

The two couples repeated their routines from Saturday night, with Harry and Karen dancing their samba to a Gloria Estefan song of the same name, while La Voix and Aljaz took to the floor again for a foxtrot to Cass Elliot’s Make Your Own Kind of Music.

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Vicky and Kai topped the Strictly leaderboard over the weekend(Image: PA)

Judges Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Shirley Ballas all chose to save La Voix and Skorjanec before Motsi Mabuse, who had this week’s casting vote, saying she would have voted the same way if it had been needed.

Following confirmation of his exit, Harry said: “I just want to thank Karen, genuinely, you have given me an opportunity to shine. You’ve understood my crazy brain.

“I’m such a logical person, trying to dance – and obviously doing what I do: Olympic sprinter, Gladiator – now I’m trying to be a dancer. I just want to thank you so much for the time and effort, the hard work that you’ve given to me. You show up, you turn out.

“I want to thank everyone here. Literally, this has been a dream come true. This is a celebration. I spoke to my daughter and she didn’t like seeing her dad sad, and when she saw me sad last week, she was like, ‘Daddy what’s wrong?’, and I wanted to show everyone that, no matter what happens, there’s always a silver lining.

“This is an experience for me, so thank you for this lovely gift, and at the end of the day, we carry on, we give it to them, and we continue to shine.”

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Vicky paid tribute to Harry following his exit(Image: Vicky Pattison Instagram)

Vicky has also been seen speaking out on Harry’s exit. Sharing pictures of the pair on Instagram, she said: “This one was a really difficult pill to swallow… @aikines