IT’S PAINFUL TO WATCH STRICTLY, ADMITS ARLENE

In her first tell-all interview since being replaced in June by younger model Alesha Dixon, 30, Arlene, 66, said: “It’s never stopped being painful. It never goes away.

“Saturdays have become like, you know, The Boomtown Rats, I Don’t Like Mondays. I don’t like Saturdays.”

Her sacking from the BBC dance show prompted more than 1,000 complaints, and was even raised in the Commons.

She says: “I have people coming up and putting their arms around me all the time. I have had more hugs in the last few months than I’ve had in a lifetime!”

Yesterday it emerged the so-called Strictly “curse” – said to have caused havoc in contestants’ relationships – may have struck again.

Hollyoaks star Ricky Whittle, 27, a favourite to win this year’s series with dance partner Natalie Lowe, has split from his girlfriend Carley Stenson.