Former Love Island star Zara McDermott was the second celebrity involved in Strictly Come Dancing to come forward about her experience on the show after an eye-witness claimed Graziano Di Prima “kicked, hit and spat” at her – with a body language expert claiming she was “fearful” of the pro.
Di Prima was the second professional to be axed from the show after Giovanni Pernice – who was accused of “bullying” Amanda Abbington, claiming she suffered PTSD from their time together.
Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima’s last interview on It Takes Two
BBC
Now, body language expert Darren Stanton has told GB News that he felt McDermott was “fearful” of Di Prima throughout their time together, with the signs being prominent in their final It Takes Two interview.
Stanton explained: “There is a lot of interesting stuff in there. She is very intimidated by him, she demonstrates quite a lot of what we call submissive behaviour and gestures.
“The amount of space that we occupy is linked to our self-esteem and confidence. People become less animated and I noticed that with her when she was perfectly normal, she was quite an animated person but certainly in their last interview and the latter end of the competition.
“She is quite small anyway but she brought her shoulders in and her arms aren’t that animated. She flashes a couple of times a fear of micro-aggression. I am not saying she is afraid of him directly, it was almost like she was playing to him, and then there are a couple of creepy moments where the interviewer said ‘What will you miss the most?’
Darren Stanton explained he felt Zara McDermott was ‘fearful’ of Graziano Di Prima
BBC
“And she went ‘Oh this person’ and I felt a bit uncomfortable because he’s by contrast, he had his arms out and his legs flayed apart, and that is sort of arrogance.
“I noticed that Graziano was quite arrogant and a lot of the time he smiled the most faked emotion that we can display as a person, I saw quite a lot of masked smiles with Graziano.
“But I think all these people are going to have a competitive edge to them but I just felt there was something not quite right.”
Alongside Pernice and Di Prima, Anton Du Beke, Ola Jordan, Janette Manrara and an unnamed female professional were all dragged into the scandal – with many former celebrities coming forward to explain their experiences.
