The former ballerina was “very emotional” dancing the American Smooth with professional partner Giovanni Pernice, 27, in the quarter-final.
She and Giovanni topped the leaderboard with 39 points, putting them in joint first place with Alexandra Burke, 29, and Gorka Marquez, 27.
It was this moment that nearly reduced her to tears, with her explaining: “Giovanni and I were both very emotional dancing it and I’m proud of what we achieved.
“I could feel the atmosphere in the studio and was blinking back the tears when we walked over to Tess,” she continued.
“If I’d completely gone to pieces at the end of the dance, which I did feel like doing, then it wouldn’t have been fair on those dancing after us because we’d have taken the audience too far down, so I tried to keep it together,” she told The Telegraph.
Meanwhile, Debbie, 59, has denied she is feuding with Alexandra, despite reports of tension between the two.
She insists they are friendly and sympathises with the singer, who lost her mum this year, as she has experienced grief too.
“There have been stories about Alexandra and I feuding, and you do find it hard to deal with because it really is all fiction. There’s nothing that I’ve read that’s been true. At first we laughed about them, but as it goes on, I’ve stopped reading things.
“When you’re going through grief, you don’t feel as strong as you once were. Some things have affected me more since Paul [Daniels] died. We’re now in week 12, so I can relate to Alex’s comments about things taking their toll,” she added.
This week on Strictly Come Dancing Debbie McGee and Giovanni will be dancing a Foxtrot and a Jive.
She will compete against celebrities Joe McFadden, Gemma Atkinson, Mollie King and Alexandra in the semi-final.
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday at 6.45pm on BBC One.
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