Truth about Strictly’s ‘ruthless’ Amber Davies: Her extraordinary behaviour with ‘terrified’ boyfriends. ‘Diva’ side she’s desperate to hide. And why she’ll stop at NOTHING to win, insiders tell KATIE HIND

It’s said that dreams come true on the Strictly ballroom dance floor.

And no one dreamed more than Amber Davies, who made her debut two weeks ago.

Since winning ITV reality show Love Island in 2017, she has been ‘beyond desperate’ to appear on the show but was disappointingly rejected twice for being ‘too good’.

(Although there are no official rules regarding contestants’ dance experience, it is seen as unfair that some have a clear advantage and Amber has a strong stage school background).

The BBC’s cynical bosses were also said to be unimpressed by Amber’s reality television background. But necessity dictates, so when Dani Dyer broke her ankle, Amber, who had a successful career on the West End stage, was drafted in to dance in the show with just 24 hours’ notice.

Her appearance against all odds is just another triumph for a young woman described as ‘determined to the point of ruthlessness’ by those who know her.

The daughter of a plumber and a mental health nurse in north Wales, the 29-year-old has gone from humble beginnings in a £150,000 three-bedroom semi in the sleepy town of Denbigh to one of the biggest shows on British television in just eight years – not to mention becoming a multi-millionaire along the way.

The Love Island winner in the villa with her then-boyfriend Kem Cetinay

And as a friend explains: ‘When Amber wants something, she gets whatever it takes; She is extremely competitive and always has been, even as a little girl.

‘But now that he’s achieved such great success, he can also be very demanding of the people around him and doesn’t worry too much about stepping on their toes to get what he wants.

‘She met with a few different managers, not to mention her boyfriends, all of whom learned the hard way that it could be a full-time job. She’s a diva in every sense.’

After Amber emerged victorious from the Love Island villa with boyfriend Kem Cetinay in 2017 and claimed her share of the £50,000 prize, she decided to make sure she wasn’t just another bikini girl.

Their relationship lasted little longer than his tan; They both blamed their busy work schedules for their breakup four months later.

The truth was that Amber thought Kem was too immature to adjust to a long-term life because she had been living independently in London for several years while he was still living with his parents.

Amber wanted more and was determined to get it.

According to sources close to her, she networked ‘like the devil’ with the help of her staunchly loyal agent Martin Coutts (whom she dumped after turning him down for a second time in 2021).

‘He was chasing the pillar and started networking in an extremely impressive way,’ says my source.

‘He befriended journalists and even appeared on the box of a red-cover newspaper for the British awards one year.’

Speaking of which, I’m told that Amber tried to arrange to walk the red carpet before the event so that she could be photographed, even though she wasn’t an official guest – or particularly famous at the time.

However, the event’s PR team did not allow this.

‘Amber wanted to be with more famous people in these shoots, as if she were that person.

‘But he had no luck with that, yet he spent the night networking with journalists he hoped would write about him.’

After making her triumphant exit from the Love Island villa, Amber set out to make sure she wasn’t just another bikini girl.

Welsh dancer and actress as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum

Her relentless pursuit of success at almost any cost also means that, despite her eagerness to capture the ‘fairy tale’, she sometimes finds it difficult to suppress the crushes.

I overheard one male friend, whose name I agreed to remain ‘horrified’, and soon suggest they discuss what their ‘public relations strategy’ would be for their relationship.

And interestingly, her current boyfriend, fellow musical actor Ben Joyce (whom she first met while appearing on stage together in Back to the Future), wrote online after being introduced as an eleventh-hour addition to Strictly: ‘Does it ever stop? No, it doesn’t!’

The two first met as friends in 2022; She endured a whirlwind two-year romance and multiple breakups, while going through a final breakup with her on-off businessman flame, Nick Kyriacou.

Amber has regularly talked about her passionate relationships and even discussed starting a family after moving into his house in Essex together; but a series of heated arguments saw them break up several times and she eventually gave up on the relationship.

I can tell you that she also had a temporary romance with chart-topping singer Tom Grennan, who invited her to a recording studio while she was making an album; However, the newly started love dried up due to their busy schedules.

As one source added: ‘Amber is all or nothing when it comes to love; It falls very hard and very fast, but it can scare people a little.

‘Whether you’re her boyfriend or someone she works with; Things always turn out the way he wants, one way or another.

‘He missed a few jobs – including the first few he went to for sure and also auditioned for Coronation Street – so he left his company even though they had really fought for him.

‘It’s show business but it’s pretty brutal. ‘Some people have worked incredibly hard to support it over the years and they’re not really remembered for it.’

Another friend added: ‘The men she dates sometimes don’t know what hit them. It is very well maintained; is intense, and it doesn’t take long before he starts talking about the future and sharing online gushing about how loved he is.

“Amber (pictured on Strictly) is fiercely competitive and always has been,” a friend tells Katie Hind.

‘Of course she’s gorgeous, she gets a lot of attention, but what she’s looking for is the complete package; Prince Charming plus a personal assistant. Put it this way, you won’t see Amber going to the bar to get her own drink or booking her own taxi, if she can avoid it; she likes to be treated like a Princess.’

Amber was criticized for being too experienced as a dancer; This is understandable, given that his journey to the top began in his youth, first at a local stage school, winning a scholarship to London’s Urdang Academy and moving to the capital at 16 to pursue his dreams.

Now part of City University, the college specializes in ballet, modern dance and musical theater skills.

Following Love Island, she won a role on the West End stage in 2019, playing Judy in 9 To 5 The Musical, a show based on the songs of Dolly Parton.

Since then she’s had a string of major stage roles in ITV rival Dancing On Ice, as well as starring roles in Back To The Future, The Great Gatsby, Bring It On and Pretty Woman, and has been booked to star in the 2026 romantic comedy tour of Legally Blonde.

For years, Amber had a competitive relationship with her equally starstruck and ambitious older sister, Jade, who starred in Les Miserables.

The pair attended the same stage school, but Jade was the first to catch a break; This caused Amber to feel pressured and even have sleepless nights.

Writing in Urdang Academy’s alumni magazine, Amber said: ‘My sister booked a job before she graduated. He booked Les Misérables and throughout my training I remember feeling the underlying pressure that I had to do the same, otherwise I would somehow fail.

‘Well, I didn’t book jobs straight after university and I soon began to realize that what he achieved was extremely rare, so Love Island was a real gamble for me. All my sleepless nights I was thinking: “Am I going to ruin the career I’ve been dreaming of my whole life before it even starts?”

Last week, Amber and her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin received 27 out of 40 points for their waltz in When We Were Young, and they’ll be dancing the samba tonight.

This week she still rejected criticism of her previous dance experience, insisting she had not been given an easy chance and still had a lot to learn.

He said: ‘Ballroom and Latin are worlds different from what I experienced in the West End.

‘It was much harder than I thought.’

But those who know her say she already has her sights set on the glitter ball and will give it everything she’s got… What Amber wants, Amber tends to get.