Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has hit back at former professional Brendan Cole's criticism with a sassy social media post. The Caerphilly-born dancer mimed the opening line from Mariah Carey's 2009 track Obsessed, blowing a kiss at the camera and mouthing: "Why are you so obsessed with me?" Her caption read: "If you know you know," alongside a prompt for people to "be kind".
Exit from the competition
Amy exited the competition first this year along with celebrity partner Chris Appleton. It comes after she was also eliminated first in 2025 when paired with The Apprentice's Thomas Skinner. The year before that, she had to leave the competition early after collapsing backstage and suffering a foot injury.
Amy returned to the show after recovering from breast cancer. She was diagnosed with grade three breast cancer in May 2023 and underwent chemotherapy and a mastectomy. She missed competing that year but made her return in 2024, and had a second preventative mastectomy in November last year.
Brendan Cole's criticism
Brendan, who was part of the Strictly professional line-up for 14 years between 2004 and 2018, told Sky Vegas that the Welsh dancer was not "up to the challenge". He said: "To be a pro on Strictly is a big job and one has to be up to the challenge. Amy has not been up to the challenge, in my opinion. I don't think Amy's been doing a very good job for the last few years and she's been out first for the last few years. One can do the maths on that."
Sharing more thoughts on the current series, Cole said he finds the way dancing couples all claim to "love each other" rather distasteful, warning that such friendships often don't last beyond the show, reported the Daily Star.
Amy kept her response close to her chest all week, but after the live second show she shared the post, which doesn't directly call out Brendan but serves as a classy response after leaving the show following the first dance-off and the furore that followed.
