Stacey Dooley pays tribute to her 'magic' friends amid Kevin Clifton drama

Stacey Dooley paid tribute to her “magic” friends as she soaked up the sun in Portugal amid the drama of the last few weeks.

Strictly Come Dancing winner Dooley thanked her supportive pals with a touching caption on a picture of her and a friend strolling along the sand on holiday.

“My girls have been magic,” the journalist and documentary maker wrote. “I love you all.”

Dooley has kept fans in the loop on social media with her fun-filled trip to Portugal, sharing snaps of group dinners and a video of a boat ride on her Instagram story.

Last week, Dooley and Strictly partner Kevin Clifton appeared to confirm their relationship by sharing the same loved-up snap on their Instagram pages.

Rumours has circulated that the two were dating since it first emerged that Dooley had broken up with boyfriend Sam Tucknott.

Tucknott later branded Clifton “an absolute rat” and a “slippery snake” in a scathing interview with the Mail On Sunday, claiming that he saw texts from Clifton professing his admiration for Dooley.

“I am so respectful of her, but I am gutted and disappointed and I feel so let down that she did not have the respect for me to tell me and just come clean,” he told the publication.

“At the start of Strictly, they go into rehearsals and she made it clear that she really wanted to be partnered with Kevin because he had got to the final four times. He seemed a genuinely nice guy.

“Adults make their own choices. I just know that he is a slippery snake – a proper rat. To have that relationship where you are best buddies, but then you start going cold because you start fancying their girlfriend – I hold no respect for him whatsoever.”

Tucknott also revealed that Clifton “went white” when he confronted him about the relationship in a video call, leaving him looking “shocked”.