STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Amber Davies sparked fears among fans after posting a tearful-looking snap hours before the live BBC show.
The Love Island alum, who is paired with Nikita Kuzmin, 27, poured out her heart addressing her “nerves” ahead of the pair’s Week Seven Salsa.
Amber, 29 – who was a late Strictly stand-in after Dani Dyer was forced to pull out due to injury – captured herself make-up free and wrapped in a chunky cream knit.
She was seen travelling in the back of a car as she headed to the studios.
The Welsh lass, who recently broke her silence after backlash to her previous dance experience, wrote in her Instagram Stories caption: “Strictly show day seven.
“The nerves start slightly earlier each week.
“To those who voted last week, thank you. We have been working extra hard to get relaxed, Salsa Amber to the dance floor.
“If you have a vote spare this evening please send our way, we absolutely need it.”
She then tagged Nikita in her post and added: “Let’s do this partner.”
Yet it was in her next picture slide where appeared close to tears and put: “Heart’s going pitter patter and it’s not even 9am.”
Amber and Nikita will dance to Sylvester track You Make Me Feel (mIghty Real) during the BBC programme later.
Their lively routine comes just hours after Amber clapped back at her haters.
Her West End theatre background led to criticism from some viewers adamant she had an unfair advantage over “amateur” celebs on the BBC One show.
Amber spoke exclusively to The Sun about the backlash and said of her hard time from critics: “We’ve seen this for a while now.
“I’m very good friends with 2023 runner-up Layton Williams and we saw it with him.
“It comes up every single year — there’s someone who is a performer or in that realm.
“So I am doing my very best not to look and listen to anything.
“I’m blocking out that noise and just being present in the moment.
“I am putting me, Nikita and Strictly in a bubble.
“All I want to do is go out there and enjoy the work we’ve done for the week, be in the moment and make us proud.
“My motto for Strictly has been, just zone in and be present.”
Ukrainian dancer Nikita was paired two years ago with Billy Elliot star Layton, who was also targeted online over his stage experience — even though their dance partnership went down a treat with judges.
So when Layton saw history repeating itself this year, he called on his fans and the West End community to back Amber.
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Recently, fans were stunned as Amber ended up in the bottom two – leaving her to dance for survival.
Instead, professional footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, 53, was given the boot.
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay opens up about her exit from the Mormon church in the forthcoming three-part Bravo documentary Surviving Mormonism, in which she also sheds lights on divisive topics including conversion therapy.
The reality star, 51, departed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when she joined the cast of the Bravo series in 2020.
The Carmel-by-the-Sea, California-born TV personality told People on Tuesday that she felt spiritually fulfilled by putting together the documentary about the church.
‘I never thought that being an antagonist to my faith and identity and family and community would feel this empowering and fulfilling, but it does,’ the Brigham Young University alum said.
Gay said she felt ‘compelled to do more’ to spread awareness toward issues she feels needs the public’s attention.
The Bravo docuseries also features interviews conducted with former members of the Mormon church.
‘I feel very, very precious about these survivors, about their willingness to share with me,’ Gay said. ‘They’re telling a Real Housewife their darkest secrets.
‘That takes a leap of faith, and I feel such a kinship to them.’
Gay credited the 2016 Leah Remini doc Scientology and the Aftermath as an inspiration in turning her own personal experience with the Mormon church into a documentary.
‘I thought what she did was so important and, in a legitimate way, giving visibility and a platform to voices that were silenced,’ Gay said. ‘That was very similar to my experience when I left the Mormon church.’
Gay said she ‘didn’t really realize how similar that experience was until [she] left.’
Gay said she especially appreciated Remini’s work in looking back on her own experiences with faith, and how she couldn’t necessarily see the entirety of the situation.
‘When I was in it, rainbows and unicorns, great,’ Gay said. ‘But when you leave and when you draw a line in the sand, I recognized and heard for the first time really just an onslaught of people’s experiences that were about surviving Mormonism.’
Gay continued: ‘If you’re in it, you don’t hear of those stories. You don’t speak of them. No one talks about them.
‘They are sidelined and silenced and made to disappear. The second you leave, you’re hearing it for the first time. I was hearing criticisms of the church for the first time.’
Gay said last month in an Instagram post that she was ‘deeply grateful to the brave participants who shared their stories of faith and survival for this docuseries. I know when you hear them you will feel the same.’
The reality star told People that she felt ostracized upon departing the religious institution.
She has past opened up about that experience in her books Bad Mormon (2023) and Good Time Girl (2024).
Gay, upon her departure from the church, said she ‘felt obligated’ and ‘a deep responsibility’ to share stories of experiences she had while an active member.
‘Leaving has taught me and exposed me to so many people that had stories to tell and wanted to share that with me,’ Gay said.
She added, ‘I suddenly had this opportunity to meet people from all over the world that wanted to share their stories with me, and that felt very powerful and inspiring.’
Gay stressed to People that she wasn’t trying to slam the institution, but just rather shed light on crucial things that have happened on their watch.
‘I don’t think this is a show about tearing down the church,’ Gay said. ‘I think this is a show about giving space to survivors that experience the shadow side of something that we all find fascinating, but no one ever talks about.
‘It’s not about the church. It’s about what people that survived the church have to say now.’
Said Gay: ‘I think the church should be worried about the show because the church says that they stand for truth and righteousness and love and humanity.’
Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay is slated to debut Tuesday on Bravo at 9:45 p.m. ET.