Alexandra Burke thinks that the UK has a "massive problem" with confident women as she has reflected on the criticism she received on Strictly Come Dancing.
Throughout her time on the show, Alexandra had to contend with online bullies and negative stories in the press about her attitude and clashes with other contestants, and she believes it stemmed from her strong performance on the show.
"I find it bizarre, because women shouldn't feel that if they come across as too confident it can be mistaken for arrogance. That's a massive problem we have over here," she told BBC News.
Alexandra added that she got "lost in a little bubble" every week on Strictly as she enjoyed dancing so much and she had to have confident as dancing meant you were doing "something out of your comfort zone".
"I wanted to learn Latin and ballroom because I've never done it before... if you get a challenge, why not try your best to execute it?," she continued.
"It's a shame that some people mistook that determination and that will to want to do well, which everyone should have in life by the way, for arrogance or anything other than what it was.
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"And I've always been quite sad about how that came across with some people and what they would say on Twitter. But at the same time, people around me that know me well enough know what I'm like and how much effort I put into everything."
Earlier this month, Alexandra revealed that she was battling a private illness during the final weeks of Strictly.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
