Strictly’s Natalie Lowe cries after Craig slams her for ‘protecting’ partner Greg Rutherford with safe rumba

STRICTLY Come Dancing's Natalie Lowe was left in tears after she was slammed by judge Craig Revel Horwood for "protecting" Greg Rutherford by choreographing a safe rumba for tonight's show.

The pair performed the ghoulish dance to Bring Me Back to Life - but self-confessed Mr Nasty wasn't impressed.

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After the other judges had generally praised the pair, Craig inwardly sighed before saying: "Natalie, I felt like you were protecting Greg with this dance with wild, show-stopping positions and lines that are all going to make the audience applaud and everything."

The audience unsurprisingly booed him and he continued as Natalie, 36, started to look rather upset: "I don't feel I can judge this dance as a rumba.

"I can probably judge this as a Showdance or a contemporary dance that's passionate and engaging but sadly it wasn't, for me - I think - to do with rumba."

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He added that if they had done the dance in a Showdance week they could have bagged a 10 and said that he did love it but couldn't mark it highly.

After the pair headed up to speak to Claudia Winkleman about the judge's critiques, Greg, 29, instantly hugged Natalie.

Her voice wobbled as she held in a sob and said: "I feel like I've let you down."

Greg instantly dismissed her and told her "not to be stupid".

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She said that he had "worked do hard this week" and that he'd been incredible this week, adding: "You're brilliant, and I'm so proud of you."

The Olympic athlete seemed rather tearful himself and said: "Don't, you'll make me cry."

Claudia also tried to comfort Natalie by saying that it was "much more exciting than a normal rumba" as she held her hand.

Craig gave them a shockingly low score of 4, while Darcey and Len gave them a 7 and Bruno an 8, pushing them to the bottom of the leaderboard with 26.

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The rest of the contestants and professional dancers rushed in to hug Natalie as she tried to not burst into tears.

Earlier this month Natalie was reported to have been telling Greg to behave after fearing that they could be sacked if they didn't do well.

Meanwhile Greg has been enjoying a blossoming bromance with fellow contestant Judge Rinder.

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Speaking to Metro, the gold medallist said: “The only Strictly curse that has been happening is the romance between me and Rob [Judge Rinder]. There’s a lot of male love going on.”

Greg is happily loved-up with partner Susie Verrill and they have a two-year-old son called Milo.

Tonight saw Claudia Fragapane and Laura Whitmore rise to the top of the pack after nabbing nines across the board.

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