When she waltzed onto Strictly’s dancefloor with more than a decade of professional dance experience, Amber Davies might surely have expected she’d face at least a little bit of flack.
After all, the former Love Island star has already enjoyed an extensive career on the West End stage, including Back to the Future: The Musical and Great Gatsby – and is not exactly a stranger to a few sequins and an elegant high-kick.
But Amber, I’m told, has apparently been left furious by the backlash she has received from her co-stars and the show’s devoted viewers.
So much so, in fact, that I can reveal she has sacked the management and publicity team who secured her place on the show in the first place.
Despite the praise she has received from the judges – receiving the highest score of the series so far last Saturday for movie week – I’m assured she is ‘quite the diva’ when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Sources tell me that Amber, 29, who was drafted in as a late replacement for injured Dani Dyer, has raised industry eyebrows by parting ways recently with celebrity management firm Massive.
Tellingly, last week she also changed the contact details listed on her very active Instagram profile. She removed PR supremo Simon Jones, whose other clients include Ant and Dec, and who previously represented One Direction and Little Mix, and replaced him with London PR outfit DawBell, on whose books they can count Sir Paul McCartney, Harry Styles, James Corden and Michelle Keegan.
Mr Jones, though, says that he stepped away from working with Amberin November last year.
Ms Davies’ dances with Nikita Kuzmin have been well received by the judges
She stepped in at the last minute to replace Dani Dyer, but fans were not impressed
A source who knows Ms Davies well told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Amber has come under attack for her huge back catalogue of dance experience. It hasn’t gone as well for her as she had probably hoped.
‘The problem is, Strictly viewers won’t be hoodwinked by things like this. They want to watch a journey, not a professional who already knows what she is doing. Amber is beyond ambitious and ruthless with how she carries on.
‘When Amber wants something, she gets it whatever it takes – she’s fiercely competitive and always has been, even when she was a little girl. If she doesn’t get it then she isn’t very happy.
‘She has been through several representatives since she got on Love Island eight years ago. If she doesn’t think they are making her into an A-lister then she moves on very quickly.’
Last weekend, friends told The Mail that Ms Davies was ‘determined, to the point of ruthlessness’ about becoming a star, and detailed the carefully-calculated steps she has taken to claw her way from humble beginnings in rural north Wales to the very top of her game.
She has, for example, been through four agents since she won Love Island in 2017, though her first agent represented her for around four years.
Her West End career, including starring in the Great Gatsby, left many questioning why Amber was allowed to appear on Strictly
Ms Davies won Love Island in 2017 with Kim Cetinay, who she apparently found ‘immature’
‘It isn’t that surprising to see Amber parting company with members of her management team again,’ says my source. ‘She’s got some form for it, and now she’s on Strictly she definitely sees her star as on the rise even more than before.
‘There’s no doubt she will be expecting the red carpet treatment from her team, and want to see some big opportunities on the back of it.
‘She’s already been through quite a few who had worked really hard for her anyway, but in reality she probably hasn’t been very happy with some of the backlash she’s had about her appearance, and on top of that she likes to feel as though she’s the centre of everyone’s attention.’
There have been several changes in her relationship status, too.
While she has now settled down, and has been dating actor Ben Joyce for the past three years, she once had a brief fling with former ‘bad boy’ Premier League footballer Danny Simpson.
Simpson, who played for Leicester City, Manchester United, Newcastle and Queens Park Rangers, once dated X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos and was found guilty in 2014 of assaulting his then-girlfriend Stephanie Ward, the mother of his daughter Skye.
Danny Simpson, pictured with Jamie Vardy, flirted with Amber on social media
He is said to have flirted with Amber on social media which intensified when Simpson, who was single at the time, suggested she join him on an exotic holiday abroad. He booked her a ticket and she flew out to join him at his resort.
A source revealed: ‘Amber has settled down a bit now and she’s happily dating another West End actor, but for a while she was very keen on the idea of having a famous boyfriend.
‘When Danny started to show an interest she didn’t take much persuading, and soon enough they were meeting up and hanging out on holiday together. Things didn’t last very long and started to fizzle out when he seemed to lose interest and move on – which she was pretty hurt by.
‘Obviously she was much more of a romantic at heart than he was at the time.’
Her Love Island win was as part of a couple with Kem Cetinay, but they separated shortly afterwards amid rumours she thought he was ‘too immature’ and not ready for a serious relationship.
She later endured a turbulent on/off romance with businessman Nick Kyriacou, and is also reported to have briefly dated chart topping singer Tom Grennan early in his career.
A source added: ‘Danny was never really right for Amber, she’s really not that sort of girl – he’s a bit too much of a bad boy for her.
‘She was just infatuated by the fame, and she fancied him, but it’s probably for the best that it fizzled out fast.’
But Amber will be hoping that her new reputation management team will mean her Strictly ambitions don’t fizzle out quite so quickly.
