Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas took a moment to stress Dianne Buswell’s name, after a slip-up last week where she got the professional dancer’s name wrong.
Dianne and her partner Tyler West – who have dubbed themselves Team TyDi – performed a Viennese waltz last Saturday night, which landed them mid-leaderboard with 29 points from the panel.
Their elegant routine to I’ve Been Loving You Too Long by Seal was praised by judges Shirley, Craig Revel Horwood, Anton Du Beke, and Motsi Mabuse, but during the judges’ comments, viewers at home picked up one thing in particular – Shirley referred to Dianne as ‘Diana’.
As a result, the 62-year-old was branded ‘rude’ by Twitter users, who questioned why she was still getting the pro’s name wrong after five years on the dance show, noting that it has happened several times recently.
However, after Dianne urged people to ‘be kind’, addressing the trolling Shirley has faced, as well as revealing Shirley did ‘apologise personally’, the judge stressed Dianne’s name today when giving comments to Tyler.
And it didn’t go unnoticed by viewers.
‘Not Shirley purposely saying Dianne like that,’ one person wrote, while another echoed: ‘Not Shirley making it a point to call her Dianne.’
This comes after Dianne sharing she hasn’t taken the slip-up to heart, saying ‘we all make mistakes’.
Appearing on It Takes Two on Wednesday evening alongside Tyler, Dianne shared that she ‘wasn’t bothered’ by it.
‘She actually apologised to me personally as well, and said it was an honest mistake, this happens!’
Dianne continued: ‘My pop called me Diana all the time, so I quite like it!
‘We’re all human, doing the best we can and sometimes people make mistakes, and I don’t want anyone to come at her just for that.
‘I’m not bothered.’
After the slip-up on Saturday, Dianne urged viewers to ‘be kind’ amid the ongoing trolling, sharing a statement on Instagram: ‘Firstly thank you guys so much for the support on our dance last night. It was a tough week but I am forever in awe of the hard work and dedication Tyler brings every single week.’
Dianne continued: ‘Another point I want to address is I have seen a lot of hateful comments aimed at Shirley for simply adding an a to the end of my name which doesn’t offend me.
‘But what does make me upset is seeing someone being bullied online. We are all human and doing the best we can. Let’s all please be kind to one another and not put each other down.’
She concluded: ‘Once again thank you for all your positive messages it really does mean a lot to us all.’
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday and Sunday on BBC One.
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