Strictly’s Karim Zeroual cheated on long-term girlfriend with office worker after sending string of explicit sexts
STRICTLY finalist Karim Zeroual cheated on his long-term girlfriend with an office worker who believed he was single.
The clean-cut CBBC star, 26, sent Rebbecca Perrins a string of explicit messages – with one saying: “F*** I want you.”
He even met her behind the back of his girlfriend Poppy-Hannah Birtwistle — who was pictured with him on the Strictly set.
Karim last night confirmed he had since split with Poppy-Hannah, with a source saying “temptation got the better of him”.
Rebbecca, 22, and Karim first hooked up on Instagram in April last year. She said: “Karim was telling me for a year-and-a-half he wanted to be with me.
“I believed him. I had really deep feelings for him. We used to talk for hours, it was so romantic. And we swapped hundreds of really flirty messages.”
One from Karim said: “F*** I want you (heart eyes emoji) do you know how long I’ve wanted you for!”.
He added: “I’m gonna be all over you.” In another sent in October — after Strictly began — he offered to pay for Rebbecca to travel from her Warrington home to London, saying: “Wanna see you (heart eyes emoji).”
Rebbecca went on: “He told me once things calmed down for him, we could become official. I even introduced him to my family. He knew they were voting for him.”
She says she suspected he may have been seeing someone else but he “always blamed his job” after ignoring her calls.
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She added: “We haven’t spoken since. Karim comes across as this perfect character, but he is anything but.”
Last night Karim confirmed he had split with Poppy-Hannah. A source close to him said: “He’s young and he wasn’t thinking.”
In last night’s final Karim finished top of the judges’ leaderboard before the public vote was counted — but he and pro partner Amy Dowden lost out to winner Kelvin Fletcher.
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