What a merry dance! Glitterball champs Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse – both married – enjoying TWO late-night hotel rendezvous, a wife minus her wedding ring and hot denials all around the Strictly curse has struck again, writes ALISON BOSHOFF

• Kevin Fletcher was pictured leading his pro dance partner into a London hotel 
• The Emmerdale soap star’s wife was photographed yesterday without her ring 
• Strictly dancers are a notoriously boozy bunch but Fletcher and Oti are not currently working together 

After the joy of their journey to lift the glitterball trophy — and a flirtation conducted in the weeks since — are these the pictures that will raise yet again the fear of the Strictly Curse?

Kelvin Fletcher, former Emmerdale soap star, guides Oti Mabuse, his professional dance partner, with a solicitous hand in the small of the back to the door of a hotel.

It is late at night and this is the first of two separate late-night drinks rendezvous on two consecutive nights.

Of course, there’s nothing unusual about Strictly colleagues meeting up sociably after hours. Indeed, the Strictly dancers are a notoriously boozy, fun-loving bunch, and late-night drinks are common when they are on the tour.

However, it is worth noting that Kelvin and Oti are currently not working together.

Strictly Come Dancing Stars Oti Mabuse and Kelvin Fletcher seen sneaking into The Soho Sanctum Hotel in London at 3.35am following boozy night out with their co stars and the rest of the Strictly Crew

Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse seen meeting up again on Saturday Night at a different hotel in Canary Wharf following their night cap at The Soho Sanctum 48 hours before

Kelvin had been performing on one of the final London dates of the Strictly tour — where he was partnered with another Strictly professional, Janette Manrara — and Oti had been recording The Greatest Dancer for the BBC. I’m told ‘plenty’ of other dancers and celebrities were present

The two of them met up last week at the Karma Sanctum Hotel, Soho, for drinks at 3.35am on Saturday.

Kelvin had been performing on one of the final London dates of the Strictly tour — where he was partnered with another Strictly professional, Janette Manrara — and Oti had been recording The Greatest Dancer for the BBC. I’m told ‘plenty’ of other dancers and celebrities were present.

‘Oti wanted to be there to support Kelvin, and why shouldn’t she?’ says a friend.

However, married Oti, 29, certainly seems closer to married Kelvin, 36, than any of her previous celebrity partners. The two then met up the following night at another London hotel, the Lincoln Plaza.

Kelvin arrived alone at 11.15pm and Oti at 11.40pm. They left after midnight, according to a friend.

On this occasion, it was just the two of them. ‘They were just meeting up as friends for an hour,’ a pal of Kelvin’s says.

Another friend declares: ‘Kelvin is a happily married man and Oti is a happily married woman, there is zero going on.’

When pictures of the liaisons came to light, though, there was an instant reaction which suggested that not everyone was convinced the meeting was innocent.

Kelvin’s wife Liz Marsland unfollowed him on Instagram. She also appeared at their home in Oldham, Lancashire, conspicuously not wearing her wedding or diamond engagement rings.

Friends said that she ‘felt like a fool’ and was ‘humiliated’ after seeing the pictures of her husband out late at night.

Those in Kelvin’s camp said that he had sworn to her that she had nothing to be jealous about and was ‘desperately trying to salvage’ the relationship.

Kelvin Fletcher’s wife Eliza Marsland seen out without her wedding ring this morning. Kelvin’s wife Liz Marsland unfollowed him on Instagram. She also appeared at their home in Oldham, Lancashire, conspicuously not wearing her wedding or diamond engagement rings

He and Liz first got to know each other as seven-year-old schoolchildren and shared a kiss in a playground aged eight. They met again in a nightclub over a decade later and have been together ever since, barring a kerfuffle in 2008 when it was reported Liz dumped Kelvin after finding a photo of a naked fan on his computer ‘along with a steamy email’.

Oti, meanwhile, was apparently ‘mortified’ by the fuss.

Yesterday, with Kelvin back home, wife Liz decided that her anger had been hasty and refollowed him on the app.

She then said in an Instagram story: ‘That ring is heavy and it only comes out on special occasions. Oh, and it was a fake tan day #nodramahere.’

Friends of Kelvin insist, somewhat surprisingly, that Liz — married to him since 2015 — isn’t actually jealous or suspicious of Oti at all.

‘Liz is not concerned by that aspect of it,’ said a pal. ‘She and Oti are good friends. Kelvin and Oti are hoping to work together again in the future.’

Instead, she was apparently just cross because she had been at home looking after their two young children while he was out on the razzle.

A friend said: ‘There is no split between Kelvin and Liz, and no question of it. It’s just that Liz was cross about him going out and partying on tour while she was at home. She had an emotional moment, that’s all.’

The friend added: ‘She has been at home looking after the kids while he has been away on tour having a good time.

‘In the heat of the moment she unfollowed him on Instagram; it was just a shock for her to see him out so late.

‘But now she’s had the chance to speak to Kelvin face to face after he came home and she feels silly for unfollowing him and admits she acted on impulse.’

Kelvin’s many fans, who were won over by his passionate dances on Strictly — which he and Oti won in December — and his much- celebrated status as a family man, will certainly hope that there is nothing going on.

He and Liz first got to know each other as seven-year-old schoolchildren and shared a kiss in a playground aged eight.

Back together Kelvin Fletcher kisses his wife goodbye as head to the station today. Friends said that she ‘felt like a fool’ and was ‘humiliated’ after seeing the pictures of her husband out late at night

They met again in a nightclub over a decade later and have been together ever since, barring a kerfuffle in 2008 when it was reported Liz dumped Kelvin after finding a photo of a naked fan on his computer ‘along with a steamy email’.

He had, it seems, been flirting online with fans.

That blip aside, his devotion to her, their family — daughter Marnie, three, and son Milo, one — has been genuinely heart-warming. The young family spent the festive season together in Lancashire and in Dubai, before returning to the UK so that Kelvin could fulfil a commitment to dance on the Strictly tour. He is said to have been paid around £15,000 a week to do so.

Now he is weighing up various professional offers, and he says he is keen to appear in a West End show. There are also offers on the table for him and Liz, a fashion graduate, to appear together. She recently had a small role in the ITV drama, Cold Feet.

Strictly has changed Kelvin’s life to a great extent, bringing him fame on a greater scale than Emmerdale. And, thanks to his undoubted talent as a dancer, it has given him a future in showbusiness at a point where he had all but given up on it.

A scandal over his closeness to Oti would, then, be the very last thing he needs. Curiously, though, Kelvin has been happy to invite speculation over the Curse of Strictly.

In interviews, he mentioned that he was hoping to get the nation talking about their chemistry. He said: ‘Two strangers spend ten hours a day together connected at the hip, naturally touching and very close, nose to nose. If you’ve not bought into that then there is something missing.

‘So I absolutely expect and I hope that people will watch me and Oti and see whatever narrative that is — whether it be that we are in love — I want people to believe it.’

Oti said, in a similar vein, that her Romanian dancer husband of six years, Marius Lepure, fully supported her racy performances.

She said: ‘Because he’s a dancer he fully understands what a rumba is.

‘He told me that you have to make it just like a rumba, otherwise you’re just two friends on the floor and what’s the point?’

However, in previous interviews Oti has said that Marius, who performed in the Strictly group numbers in 2017 but has never been a pro dancer on the show, can be jealous of her partners, telling them: ‘Don’t touch my wife unless you have to.’

Oti said: ‘He is a real macho man with a thick European accent. He gives them the firm handshake. It’s sexy, when you are standing there and your man is threatening your dance partner. I love it, I’m like, “That’s my man.” ’

When former cricketer Graeme Swann — Oti’s celebrity partner in 2018 — gave her flowers, Marius threw the bouquet away and said: ‘She’s allergic to flowers.’

Marius Lepure with wife Oti Mabuseat the Specsavers Spectacle Wearer of the Year Awards 2019 held at 8 Northumberland Avenue in London

One can only wonder what Marius makes of his wife’s continued friendship with Kelvin.

After the show finished, Kelvin and Oti stayed in touch. In January, they were spotted having a catch-up at Shoreditch’s Cirque bar.

A source revealed at the time: ‘Oti and Kelvin were in the bar when we arrived at 12am and seemed very close.’

Further flirting was conducted when Oti gave an interview to promote The Greatest Dancer last month.

Kelvin took to Instagram to say: ‘Well there’s Oti on The One Show tonight with the lovely Patrick and Alex and she was asked the question, “What was the highlight of the Strictly series?”

‘And Oti answered, “The rehearsing” and how she was continuously pushing me to do more . . . that’s not the truth, Oti!

‘We all know that. The highlight was rehearsals, yes, and the shows, but just working with me, because we got on like a house on fire. I made you laugh, every single day.’

He then joked: ‘Why didn’t you say that on the show?’

The former soap star continued: ‘Millions of people have just seen that now and you didn’t tell them that I was funny, you didn’t tell them that we got on and I know this is live if anyone is watching The BBC One Show ask them again and she needs to give you a better answer.’

Liz — secure in her marriage — never seemed to mind. She and Kelvin got together in 2006 after she finished university and was working as a fashion buyer.

He proposed during a trip to Wales in 2015 and they were married in 2016 after ten years together. She posted a photo of the happy couple on Instagram with the caption: ‘So . . . after a million years together he finally popped the question.’

And he seemed to fully understand how fortunate he was.

He said: ‘I knew I wanted to marry Liz the day I met her. Deep down, I knew she was the one. The image of Liz coming towards me up the aisle will live with me forever. She took my breath away, she looked so beautiful.’

He added: ‘When you have known someone since primary school, you can’t get to know anyone much better than that.

‘I’m happiest with people who have known me for years. I just want to be a normal lad, and not some bloke off the telly.’

Sentiments he will no doubt be calling to mind now.

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