Strictly's Vito Coppola tells critic to 'watch your mouth' in fiery rant at troll

Professional dancer Vito Coppola hit out at a critic whilst defending three of his friends from Strictly Come Dancing after being criticised over a video on social media this week. He addressed the situation in a message to fans tonight.

It comes after Vito, 32, shared a skit on Instagram this afternoon. The sketch showed the pro and Ellie Goldstein, 23, who is his celebrity partner on the BBC show this year, pretending to continually fart whilst in a rehearsal together.

A number of fans expressed amusement in the comments section but not everyone was impressed, with some viewers saying that they didn't find it funny. Vito has since shared that model Ellie received a direct message about it from one critic, with him addressing their reaction in a video.

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The viewer's message, shared by Vito, described the skit as "grim" and encouraged Ellie to tell him to delete it. The critic appeared to suggest that the pro has spending "too much time" with his colleague Dianne Buswell, 36, and her partner Joe Sugg, 34, and been "influenced" by the couple.

In the message, the viewer wrote: "Hey girl, please tell Vito to delete the latest fart video. It's not really that funny. He's supposed to be hot and mysterious - and these type of jokes and skits are grim and don't present him well at all. Just keep to dancing videos, they're so cute and fun!

"I think Vito has been spending too much time with Dianne and Joe and has been influenced by them (they do fart jokes a lot and it's also grim) but he's better than this (and so are you!). Just please upload dancing videos!! He's good good for embarrassing content like this. Sending love."

Vito addressed the comments in a video on his Instagram Story tonight alongside a photo of the message. He told fans in a caption over the post on the platform this evening: "Please if you don't want to get blocked just respect."

He suggested in the video that he doesn't usually "care" about criticism on social media. Vito said: "I don't really pay attention but in this case you touched three important people to me so ... Dianne and Joe, they are really my friends, they are family to me. So you better watch your mouth, yeah, before you speak of certain people.

"Second, don't send this message to Ellie because she's my little sister and I am very protective. I do care a lot so please ... I already advised Ellie to block this profile and whoever is gonna even try to say something like this."

Vito then reacted to the use of "hey girl" at the start of the message to Ellie, with him questioning whether the sender knows her personally. He then said in the video: "I don't think so, so maybe 'hey girl' to someone else."

Concluding his speech, Vito encouraged fans to promote positivity and avoid "hate". He told his followers at the end of the video: "So please, only joy, smile, enjoyment, whatever you want but please no hate. Mwah, love and peace!"

In the skit that had been uploaded prior, Vito and Ellie were seen in a dance studio as they both mimed along to a voiceover that featured farting sounds. At the end, Vito acted as an explosive sound played, before Ellie lip-synced to someone saying: "Okay, that was disgusting, we're done!"

Vito wrote in the caption of the post, which was shared jointly on Ellie's Instagram page: "POV: Sharing is caring." He added three emojis that are said to depict 'dashing away' and then alongside laughing emojis added: "Ahahaha."

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