Sarah Manners, the second star of the STRICTLY series, seems to have gone back in time 20 years after her appearance on the series.

Sarah, 48, who danced to sixth place with Brendan Cole in 2004, had a tough task when she found herself in an emotional conflict with her show partner.

It took years for Graziano Di Prima, 30, to be axed from the new series after reports emerged that he had verbally and physically abused his celebrity partner, Zara McDermott, 27, last year.

This followed the suspension of Giovanni Pernice, 33, over allegations of behind-the-scenes misconduct by Amanda Abbington, 50, and two other former celebrity partners, which he denies.

The actress has since traded in her fame for a new job: she works as a Pilates instructor and has even developed her own app: Pilates On Tap.

In a recent post on Instagram, she even posed for a selfie with jury member Anton Du Beke, after she met him while working on a cruise ship.

She wrote: “Look who I ran into on @skyprincessofficial’s cruise ship! @mrantondubeke.

“He looks amazing! Even better than he did 20 years ago when we were together in season 2! He threw me around Tango style which was awesome.

“Tango was my favorite dance in the show! Too bad I didn’t dance with mister DuBeke. There’s actually a story behind it, but I’ll save that for another time…

“Watched Anton and the beautiful @erinboagofficial dance on stage last night. Amazing!”

Although she seems to be on cloud nine these days, Sarah burst into tears after Brendan called her a sexist slur, before going on to trash her on live TV.

In a then-unknown interview with The Sun, Brendan insulted his partner by calling her a “b****”.

When Brendan spoke to us in November 2004, he immediately said that he and Sarah did not see eye to eye.

‘We were two strong personalities’

He also compared her negatively to former BBC newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky, with whom he had won the show the year before and with whom he was romantically involved, both claims he denied.

Brendan said: “Sarah was a b***h, but I was a b*****d too.

“Natasha let me take charge on the dance floor, pick her dress, decide her hair. That certainly didn’t happen with Sarah. I was used to working with graceful women – Sarah was a ladette.

“For me, on the dance floor, the man is the boss. We both had two strong personalities, and the problem was that we were both trying to drive the same car.”

His comments followed a poor performance in the rumba in the second week of the competition, during which Brendan reportedly stormed off the set and refused to speak to Sarah.

Sarah’s Tears

Brendan also appeared on the spin-off show It Takes Two, where he compared Sarah’s movements to a “brick wall”.

Doctors star Sarah was shown crying over his comments on her Strictly VT the following week.

Sarah subsequently responded to the disturbing comments in an interview with The Mirror.

“I called him and told him I saw him being mean – and burst into tears again. I felt like I had let him down, but I’m doing more than my best,” she said.

“Afterwards he felt awful and was very apologetic. He really wished he hadn’t said it. It’s actually quite sad because he’s fantastic. We have the best laugh.

“Dancers are very, very passionate and love what they do – and the emotions are very high. When things are good, they are very good and when they are not good, that is also extra.”

Unfortunately for Sarah, she was rejected three weeks before the final and finished in sixth place.

The eventual winner was EastEnders actress Jill Halfpenny.

‘Not exactly a nice person’

Brendan left the show in 2018 and has had several run-ins with his celebrity partners over the years.

He openly admitted that singer Lulu was his “worst” partner, saying on Loose Women that the Scot was “not a particularly nice person”.

He also left GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips in tears and punched her three times on the bottom.

Footage has been found of him training with the presenter, where he can be seen slapping her on the bottom three times. These scenes were broadcast in 2005.

He was also shown behaving aggressively towards her and calling her “pathetic” before trying to laugh off his attitude.

This led to Fiona saying, “Stop yelling at me.”

Dirty tirade

She then said she didn’t want to continue with the training, adding: “I don’t feel like it anymore, now that you say that.”

Previous footage of the couple also showed Fiona burst into tears as Brendan threw a tantrum.

Brendan was clearly irritated by their continued low scores. The clip shows him fuming backstage during dress rehearsals, swearing and launching into a foul tirade.

He then orders the cameras to “stop filming me.”

Later, Fiona was seen bursting into tears while rehearsing with Brendan.

She told the camera alone that the professional ‘looked at me as if he had stepped into someone’.

Claire’s Death Struggle

Yesterday, The Sun also looked back at Emmerdale legend Claire King’s experience with the New Zealand dancer.

In an interview with The People, the actress described Brendan as “intolerant” and “impatient.” She accused him of often making her feel worthless and undermining her self-confidence.

She claimed he also dismissed her arthritis as unimportant, despite doctors having advised her to quit the show because of the condition.

The soap legend said: “We had been dancing together for weeks and he didn’t even realise I was in pain every day of training because of my arthritis.

“It wasn’t until someone else pointed it out to him that he found out. He’s just not interested in me at all. He’s very distant.

“He’s astonished that we’ve even gotten this far. He had no confidence in me and certainly never did anything to boost my confidence. He has a very negative attitude.

She also told the publication that he had said “really nasty things” about her in the media, including that she “smelled like smoke.”