Have Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas really put their bust-up behind them? Or are the smiles all for show? Mark Ballas has been pretty chivalrous, as he spoke to the press about falling out with Bristol, behind the scenes at Dancing With The Stars. Palin has hardly been doing well on the show – she’s not exactly a popular character and she’s scored pretty low each week that the show has been on. “We love each other," Ballas explained to People Magazine. "Sometimes people piss each other off. We've swept it under the rug and carried on. We had a rough day out of many, many, many days that we've spent together." Pretty generous behavior, given that she accused him of being mentally and physically absent from some of their rehearsals together.

Palin also accused Mark Ballas of wishing that he had been dancing with his former partners, such as Sabrina Bryan or Shawn Johnson, though he insists that isn’t the case, stressing that whilst he will “continue to support them… Bristol is my number one and I'll always be here 100 percent.” The media, of course, will be looking for the smallest sign of ongoing drama, though Mark insists that the row is behind them. “We're fine," Ballas said backstage after the show. "We've danced together before. This isn't our first season together. The last season we did together, we didn't argue once – nothing, we were just chill. So the fact that we've made it through a season and a quarter and this is now our first fight is amazing.”

Is this just a front from Ballas and Palin though? Bristol herself hasn’t been quite as vocal on the matter – though she’s hardly renowned for being tactful when she’s faced with pressure, so maybe the show’s producers are trying to make sure that Mark does all the talking. It will be interesting to see how the pair get on for the remainder of the series… for however long they remain.