Ellie Leach revealed her true feelings towards her Strictly Come Dancing co-star as she posted a gushing message to confirm he’s been cast for the live tour.

The 23 year old former Coronation Street star, who was also crowned as the winner of the last series of the BBC dance show, posted an official picture of professional dancer Vito Coppola and described him as “handsome.” Re-posting the Strictly live tour’s official social media post, she captioned it saying: “devilishly handsome he is.” There was a time when the pair teased a potential romance while on the show last year, but it soon came to light that the they were just good friends.

Instead, Ellie had enjoyed a number of dates with fellow dancer Bobby Brazier, who was paired with professional dancer Dianne Buswell. However, just a few weeks later, their once budding romance fizzled out and Bobby wasted no time in finding love with his EastEnders co-star Jazzy Phoenix.

Jazzy plays sex worker Nadine on the BBC soap. Earlier this month both Bobby and Jazzy hinted at a relationship on social media. In the now deleted post, the actress posted a picture of a bunch of pink and white flowers and Bobby posted the same picture hours before. Bobby has even reportedly treated the actress to a lavish dinner at the Mayfair restaurant Bagatelle and has posted a series of loved-up emojis on her Instagram posts.

As source told The Sun: “Bobby is enjoying getting to know Jazzy. He loves that they both share a passion for acting and he, of course, thinks she is very beautiful.” Speaking about how Ellie may feel about the situation, the source added: “There are no hard feelings with Ellie. [Their] whirlwind romance just fizzled out.”

It has been said that the pair failed to make their relationship work as Bobby resumed his role as Freddie Slater in EastEnders and Ellie was on tour with the stage production of Cluedo. Ellie has since been filming for the new ITV show Drama Queens. And during a recent episode, viewers saw her break down in tears as she recalled the moment she found out her ex boyfriend had cheated on her.

The actress had been in a long term relationship with Reagan Pettman when he did an interview and spoke about his regret over cheating on her at a nightclub. Speaking to her mum Karen, Ellie said: “It was just a shock, it was a shock, I was like: ‘What?'” And Karen replied: “It was the timing!” Ellie continued: “It’s weird, because…” and it was at this point she emotionally broke down in tears.