Ellie teamed up with professional dancer, and former Glitterball winner, Vito Coppola before her exit from the BBC One dance contest
Ellie Goldstein has shared what viewers didn’t see on how she was supported during her time on Strictly Come Dancing as she admitted to being emotional over her exit.
The model and actress was the first person with Down’s syndrome to compete on the main series, teaming up with professional dancer, and former Glitterball winner, Vito Coppola.
Their last performance took place during the show’s Halloween special, during which they performed the tango to Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra in a magic-themed performance, which saw Ellie pulling Vito, dressed as a bunny, out of a hat.
They were seen scoring a total of 27 points out of a possible 40 points from the judges, which left them at the dangerous end of the leaderboard. Ellie and Vito then landed in their first dance-off, with the pair having to fight for their place in the competition against actress Balvinder Sopal and dancer Julian Caillon.
After both performances, the judges delivered a unanimous verdict. Anton du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse all opted to save Balvinder Sopal and Julian Caillon, sealing Ellie and Vito’s departure from the show.
But, Ellie and Vito have continued to dance, having shared videos of performances they could have performed on the show on social media instead. Appearing on Paul C Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast alongside her mum Yvonne Goldstein, Ellie spoke about learning her time on Strictly was over.
“On Strictly I got voted off on Halloween week. Don’t know why I got voted off, anyways! But it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, I’m grateful. But it’s like with the dance-off, I cry a lot. You know what, just go out there and do it and it was all the judges so we did. Then we did a big bow and we went home. Unfortunately, I was a bit too sad.
“[Vito said] ‘Come on cheeky’. We did our bye byes. See you soon,” she told Paul. Ellie added: “We had a little dance and they went, ‘Ellie! Ellie!’ He picked me up and hugged me ‘I love you, my sister’. That was the best.”
Sharing how the show adapted to make things more comfortable for her, Yvonne shared: “What they used to do just to help Ellie, they used to print off all the judges comments and then show Ellie there was more positives than constructive. But it helped you each week because you improved each week.
“So the constructive comments were helpful. They went the extra mile always for Ellie, it was amazing.” Ellie then interjected: “And Vito of course.”
When asked what else they did to support her, the 23-year-old commented: “So, in my room I got a nice desk, pictures of all the welfare and artist team and the show team,” before Yvonne added: “Anything that made Ellie more comfortable.”
