Strictly Come Dancing: Zoe Ball offers 'lots of love' to Will Young after sudden exit

Young withdrew from this year's Strictly due to personal reasons
Missed: Karen Clifton and Will Young
BBC/Guy Levy
Emma Powell13 October 2016

It Takes Two host Zoe Ball has wished Will Young "lots of love" after his sudden departure from Strictly Come Dancing.

Ball - who fronts the spin-off show - told viewers on Wednesday night: "Will Young has withdrawn from this year's Strictly due to personal reasons.

"Will sad face."

She added: "Of course the whole team at Strictly and It Takes Two wish him all the best. He was so brilliant.

Guy Levy/BBC

"The competition will continue as normal on Saturday with an elimination on Sunday night's result show. Lots of love to Will."

Young, 37, quit the competition on Tuesday and assured fans he is "absolutely dandy" after speculation grew about his reasons for leaving.

Young has previously spoken about dealing with pressure and being diagnosed for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Young - who struggled to manage his "ego" after winning Pop Idol in 2002 - said: "I was desperately unhappy. Then I got PTSD and got depersonalisation and derealisation which is when your body can’t cope with the flooding of emotions from the past. I couldn’t see my face in the mirror or recognise family."

Speaking about overcoming the conditions he said: "The singing and knowing that I had an idea of what authentic was I knew I could do it

"It’s about communication. Not being afraid to be vulnerable or be angry or sad or happy."

Young sparked speculation about the reasons behind his exit when he told fans that he had withdrawn from the competition for "personal reasons".

In a text to the Radio 2 breakfast show on Wednesday morning, read out by DJ Chris Evans, Young said the reasons for his departure were "all very undramatic".

"Here's the thing. I'm absolutely dandy, thanks," his message said.

"It's all very undramatic really. I've done my statement and others can say what they want to say. I never read what they say anyhow."

His exit came after head judge Len Goodman told Young to ''turn up, keep up, shut up'' after his salsa on Saturday night.

The singer, who was partnered with Karen Clifton, said he left with "joy in my heart that I have been able to take part in one of the most loved shows on British television".

Young and Clifton were due to perform the Viennese waltz to Say Something by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera this weekend.

Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One on Saturday at 6:30pm.

Strictly Come Dancing 2016

1/44

Follow @StandardEnts or like us on Facebook for more entertainment news.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in