Zara McDermott has been opening up about her exit from Strictly Come Dancing.
The former Love Island bombshell exited the hit BBC series on Sunday night, after receiving one of the lowest amounts of public votes.
A few days on from her departure, Zara has now received an emotional tribute from her boyfriend, Made In Chelsea alum Sam Thompson.
During an appearance on It Takes Two last night with dance partner Graziano Di Prima, presenter Fleur East surprised Zara with a video message from Sam.
“I just wanted to make this video and tell you how incredibly proud I am and all your friends and all your family are of you and what you’ve achieved over these past seven weeks,” 31-year-old Sam gushed at the beginning of his video.
“I remember you said, when you started this, ‘I’ll be gone week one,’ but you lasted seven entire weeks. What you’ve achieved is so admirable. I love you,” he gushed at the end of his message.
Zara, who broke down in tears over Sam’s sweet surprise, then went on to explain what his support means to her.
“It’s just honestly amazing. I mean, having him there on Saturday night was really special,” the 26-year-old detailed.
“Being able to just kind of see him in the audience and give him a big wave before and having him there for that moment was just so special,” she cried.
Zara, who lost the dance-off to Waterloo Road actor Adam Thomas, later shared that she was gutted to leave the competition.
“It’s been a real up and down of emotions the last few days of just processing everything. I think today was the hardest morning ever just not going to training. I literally texted [Graziano] the moment I woke up,” the documentarian recalled.
Referring to dance partner Graziano sitting beside her, she praised: “This human being right here is what I’m going to miss the most because he is the most special, beautiful soul in the world.”
