Cheryl shocks Strictly viewers with unexpected first TV appearance since Liam Payne’s death

The best thing aboutStrictly Come Dancingis that you never know what’s going to happen next, and tonight viewers got the ultimate surprise.

This week saw the return of Icons Week, in which the celebrities and their professional partners embodied their music heroes and dressed up as the likes ofBeyonce,Dolly Parton, andUsher.

ForVicky Pattison, the reality star, 37, opted forCheryl, having resonated with the 42-year-old fellow Geordie’s rise to fame.

She and proKai Widdringtonbrought all kinds of nostalgia to the dance floor with a couple’s choice to Cheryl’s 2009 debut solo banger Fight for This Love, which was not only rewarded with some impressive scores but also a message from the woman herself.

Following her performance, hostClaudia Winkleman, who announced this week that Strictly 2025would be her final series, told Vicky: ‘You love Cheryl, don’t you? I’ve got something to tell you… she loves you too.’

‘Does she really?’, Vicky squealed, jumping up and down in shock as a video of theGirls Aloudsinger appeared on screen.

In it, the pop star told theGeordie Shorequeen: ‘Hi, Vicky. It’s Cheryl here.

‘I first of all wanted to say congratulations on your Strictly success thus far; you’ve been doing amazing.

‘I’m very honoured and humbled to be your chosen icon for this week.’

She added sweetly: ‘I know you’ve got it in you, ’cause you’re a Geordie, so go out there, fight for your place, and I’m sending you loads of love. I’ll be rooting for you from home. Big kiss.’

Vicky, understandably, watched the clip with a wide-open mouth before excitedly screaming: ‘She knows who I am!’

‘Oh my God, I love you, Cheryl,’ the podcaster flirted down the camera lens, to which Claudia mocked: ‘Oh, she knows.’

Taking to X after the very wholesome moment, Strictly viewers were just as overjoyed as Vicky to see Cheryl back on their televisions, asshe’s kept a low profilefor the past 12 months since the death of her ex-partner,Liam Payne.

Cheryl sharedeight-year-old son Bearwiththe late One Direction star, whose deathat the tender age of 31rocked the world last October when he fell from his hotel balcony in Argentina.

‘The way I’m crying at cheryl sending vicky a message WE LOVE YOU CHERYL’, tweeted@scddevereaux.

‘A MESSAGE FROM CHERYL OMG’, wrote @BradleyXO_.

‘NAH THE WAY I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW CHERYL’, added @KatMarBax.

‘cheryl video message on strictly oh i’m gonna cry along with vicky now’, penned @Kaaaaatie_x.

There was also plenty of praise for Vicky’s routine tonight, as viewers are loving watching her improve week after week.

‘Vicky and Kai were so in sync!! Incredible!’, @sequinnedsheep declared after the pair’s fierce number in the iconic red military costumes.

‘I can’t stop thinking about Vicky’s dance. As a huge Cheryl fan I’m honestly obsessed with the whole thing’, @michellepryde agreed.

Speaking in her tearful VT before taking to the floor tonight, Vicky explained: ‘Cheryl Cole is an icon to me. She’s a working-class girl from Newcastle; she’s had her ups and downs, her grazed knees, and I just feel like I can relate to a lot of her.’

‘Vicky hasn’t come from a lot, and from where she was to where she is now is truly incredible,’her husband, Ercan, also praised.

Getting emotional, Vicky then reflected on ‘losing [her] way’ following a ‘lovely’ childhood, having started in the entertainment industry in her early twenties.

‘I made some bad decisions,’ she confessed. ‘I just don’t think, at that age, I had the tools to navigate that space I was in.’

Thankfully, she’s come out the other side, declaring that she’s now ‘doing [her] best to be a better version of [herself]’ and be someone who can ‘look in the mirror and feel alright about’.

‘Now that I am doing this incredible show, and when I look into the audience and I see my mam’s face and my dad’s face and my sister’s, I’m just so happy. Sometimes, I’ve gotta pinch myself.’

Vicky’s couple’s choice was given 33 points in total, with judge Shirley Ballas noting the ‘synchronisation’ and Motsi Mabuse stating: ‘I’ve never seen you perform better than this. This was your best dance.’

Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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