Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips has blamed professional dancer, Kristina Rihanoff for Joe Calzaghe’s departure this weekend.

Arlene thinks the pair’s performances were lacking, because their romance was so heavily publicised outside the show.

Arlene told The Sun: “The thing about Strictly romances like Matt and Flavia’s is nobody knew. That’s what made it so unbelievably powerful.

“We were seeing two people dancing together and everyone was thinking: Are they? Or aren’t they?

“Nobody knew and so what was happening on screen became extremely powerful and everybody wondered if it was real.

“But the romances this year – Kristina and Joe, Ali and Brian – are out there for all to see so it becomes meaningless on the dance floor. There is no mystery, no haunting quality.”

Arlene admitted that Kristina is a good dancer and teacher, but says sometimes other elements take over. She said:

“She’s powerful and very creative too. She takes the bigger picture of ballroom and Latin and sees within the rules what she can add or put in, she’s a very good storyteller to her dance.

“But she has a lot of other things on her agenda – and sometimes it overshadows.”