Claudia Winkleman is stepping down as the host of Strictly Come Dancing after the end of the current series, and it seems her son Jake Thykier might be quite happy because of it
Claudia Winkleman once confessed her son was desperate for her to quit Strictly. The Traitors host announced alongside Tess Daly that they would be stepping down from the BBC show at the end of the current series. And it seems Claudia’s son Jake Thykier will be ecstatic with the news.
Jake is Claudia’s son with husband Kris Thykier. They also share a daughter, Matilda, who was once involved in a horrific accident around Halloween.
And while Jake is now 22, when he was a teenager it seems his mother’s razzle-dazzle Strictly job was anything but cool. And he was so embarrassed by it, he wanted Claudia to pack it in.
Speaking in 2018, on The Dan Wootton Interview podcast, she said: “My eldest son has got a buzzcut. He’s 15 and he thinks his mum’s a loser. It’s heartbreaking.
“The main thing he wants me to do is just not do Strictly.
“‘Mum, if you really love me, you’d stop.’ He’s just embarrassed.”
But Claudia wasn’t having it.
She went on: “But that’s the whole point. My job is to embarrass him, so I just follow him around trying to lick his ear. He’s the cutest thing ever.”
It’s not the only time Claudia’s brought up her son’s dislike of Strictly.
She said in 2023, while collecting an Outstanding Achievement Award at the Edinburgh TV Festival: “My son said to me, ‘Mum, you have got to stop doing Strictly, it’s so embarrassing and my teacher has mentioned it.’
“I just went, ‘See those trainers, Jake?’ He was like, ‘OK, sorry.'”
In fact, last year Claudia revealed Jake had begged her to quit Strictly and host another show instead.
She said on the Dish With Waitrose podcast: “My son, about four years ago, went, ‘You have to stop doing that show… can you just work on Match Of The Day?’
“I was like, ‘I can’t spell football!'”
Claudia did struggle with Strictly when Jake went off to university, though.
She said on Woman’s Hour in 2021: “I genuinely don’t know what I’m going to do. I mean we all have to do it. [My son] goes September 13.
“I don’t want to cry on your show because I feel like it’s the beginning of the week and let’s be upbeat, but I genuinely don’t know what I’m going to do. I mean we all have to do it, there aren’t any words.”
She feared that the launch of Strictly would clash with Jake’s big move, so issued an ultimatum.
Claudia went on: “I phoned the boss of Strictly quite dramatically and said, through tears, ‘Sarah I love you. I don’t want to leave Strictly.
“‘Tess and I have agreed we will leave together when they’re done with us, but if the first show is September 13, I’m out and you’ll have to go with somebody else.’
“And there was a beat. And Sarah said, ‘Quite dramatic. We don’t start that week.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’
“It was a rite of passage, I had to go and hang up his posters. It’s not that I love him more than others love their kids, but this is something parents have to go through.”
Jake would go on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management.
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