As Dancing on Ice draws to an end, Vanessa Bauer has posted a cute tribute to her skating partner Wes Nelson – with the couple tipped to win the show. The pairing got off to a tumultuous start when Wes’s then girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson unleashed a furious attack on Vanessa for announcing her break up the night of their first performance.
But despite Wes admitting the episode did put them under extra pressure, and eventually led to Megan and Wes splitting, the couple have excelled during their time on the show and are even tipped to beat professional dancer James Jordan and his skating partner Alexandra Lukasz.
CLOSER Dancing On Ice winners - slider with cover pic
Think you can remember all the winners of Dancing On Ice? Let's see...
Gaynor Faye, 2006
Emmerdale actress Gaynor Faye won the first ever series of Dancing On Ice alongside her professional ice skating partner Daniel Whiston, under the watchful eye of judges Robin Cousins, Karen Barber, Nicky Slater, Jason Gardiner and Karen Kresge.
Kyran Bracken, 2007
Rugby player Kyran Bracken won the show - and the hearts of viewers - in the second series. Beating Clare Buckfield in the final showdown, Kyran won with his professional partner Melanie Lambert.
Suzanne Shaw, 2008
Hear'Say singer Suzanne Shaw won the 2008 series with professional ice skater Matt Evers. Both of their final performances scored a perfect 30/30, which was the first time that had happened on the show, beating runner-up Chris Fountain.
Ray Quinn, 2009
The X Factor star-turned-Broadway star Ray Quinn won the show in 2009 alongside his professional partner Maria Filippov. The couple beat out journalist Donal MacIntyre and his partner Florentine Houdinière with their final performance. He also won the returners' series in 2014.
Hayley Tamaddon, 2010
Sam Attwater, 2011
EastEnders' actor Sam Attwater won the coveted prize of first place in 2011 wth his partner Brianne Delcourt, beating TV presenter Laura Hamilton. The pair also returned for the 2014 series, but finished fourth.
Matthew Wolfenden, 2012
Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden won the 2012 series with his professional ice skating partner Nina Ulanova, beating fellow soap star Jorgie Porter to the top. This was also the year that Louie Spence joined the judging panel, if you remember...
Beth Tweddle, 2013
Olympic champion gymnast Beth Tweddle won the 2013 series alongside her partner Daniel Whiston in his THIRD win on the show. She beat out EastEnders actor Matt Lapinskas and his partner Brianne Delcourt, and came third in the 2014 returners' series with Łukasz Różycki.
Jake Quickenden, 2018
The X Factor and I'm A Celeb! runner-up Jake Quickenden finally won a reality show when he took part in Dancing On Ice in 2018 with his professional partner Vanessa Bauer, beating Coronation Street's Brooke Vincent - and she was NOT happy.
James Jordan, 2019
James Jordan and Alexandra Schauman won 2019's trophy despite some fierce competition from Love Island's Wes Nelson and his partner, last year's winning professional Vanessa Bauer.Judges called their rendition of the famous Bolero "the best the show had ever seen" despite the first dance of the final failing to top the leader board. Early on in the 2019 competition, James was criticized for having an unfair advantage over the other contestants because of his extensive dancing experience.
Joe Swash, 2020
Joe Swash and Alex Murphy took home the 2020 trophy, despite Diversity's Peri Kiely being the bookies favourite since the beginning of the competition.However, it wasn't all plain sailing for Joe throughout the competition. Not only did he find himself at the bottom of the leaderboard in week three and have an ear infection, he also had to swap professional dance partners after Alexandra Schauman fell and injured herself during rehearsals, forcing her to drop out of the show.
Taking to her Instagram to share a smiling picture of herself and Wes, Vanessa wrote, 'Watched back our journey on @dancingonice today ⛸.
'Words can’t describe how proud I am of @wes.nelson for his incredible progress as a result of hard work ! 🔥 It’s hard to believe this time next week this is going to be over... 🙁.' [sic]
Fans flooded the comments with messages of good luck and congratulations. 'Love watching the journey of you both skating 💖 Now that it’s the final.! hopefully people will start focusing on the skating and not the gossip around the skating ☺️ You were both amazing last week and well deserved to be in the final,' said one commenter.
'Faves,' said another. 'Let's hope this is just the start of Happily Ever After....'
The sweet tribute comes after Vanessa admitted during an interview with new! magazine that she’d struggled with the negative attention following the Megan drama. “It’s something I’ve tried to keep away from and not comment on. But of course it affects me,” she said.
"I read comments and I get DMs on Instagram which are really not nice, it was really hard to deal with but it’s not my job to comment on that." She continued, “I’m upset about it. I feel so honoured to be on the show as a professional skater and it takes the focus away from that.
"Every single day I’m looking for choreography ideas and how to schedule my training and all anyone is talking about is if I’m getting with Wes, which I’m not. I don’t know why it’s so much more of a topic than us being at the top of the leader board."
NOW WATCH: Saara Aalto opens up about Dancing On Ice
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