Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have announced they are both leaving Strictly Come Dancing after 11 years of presenting the BBC show together
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman have revealed they are both departing from Strictly Come Dancing, 11 years after they started presenting the show as a partnership.
Tess has helmed the BBC programme since it launched 21 years ago alongside Sir Bruce Forsyth, with Claudia coming aboard in 2014.
The duo are now both calling it quits, taking to Instagram to break the unexpected news, describing their Strictly journey as “an absolute dream” whilst stating it “feels like the right time” to bow out.
They posted: “We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.
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“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show. They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day,” reports Wales Online.
“We will cry when we say the last “keep dancing” but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”
Their replacements have yet to be confirmed, and though the pair did not disclose their specific reasons for quitting Strictly now but they have both previously addressed how much their family means to them and wanting more free time during their weekends.
In fact, just weeks ago, Tess spoke about having her weekends to herself again as her two daughters, who she shares with Vernon Kay, have grown up.
Speaking on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast earlier this month, Tess said: “I’m not someone who goes for a day to the spa. I’m thinking, what do my kids need me to do today? Do you know what I mean?
“So I’m always making up for that. If I’ve worked for a day or two, then I’m like, now this time I need to do more for them because I was absent here.
“So I’m always trying to make up for that. So if I remove them from that picture… I don’t know. I mean, it could be quite lovely, it could be really great.
“I could be on weekend breaks with my girlfriends to Ibiza. How about that? I might be back dancing on podiums.”
Meanwhile, Claudia previously joked she almost quit Strictly in the past due to prioritising her family.
Speaking on BBC Women’s Hour, she said: “I phoned the boss of Strictly quite dramatically and said, through tears, ‘Sarah I love you, I don’t want to leave Strictly and Tess [Daly] 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 she said, ‘Quite dramatic. We don’t start that week.’
“I was like, “alright”. I have to go and put 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.”
The Celebrity Traitors host reiterated her pact that she and Tess would leave at the same time in an interview with The Mirror, saying: “Tess and I will leave at the same time, we’ve made that pact over pizza. We’ll go together, whenever they’re done with us.”
The change in Strictly’s presenting line-up comes after the BBC show has been embroiled in recent scandals, from Giovanni Pernice and Graziano di Prima being axed from the professional dancer cast, to Wynne Evans being dropped during the live tour.
Closer Magazine recently reported that Strictly bosses were anxious Claudia would leave the show, following the recent scandals.
“She’s the face the public trusts,” the publication noted. “She’s hugely popular, and they know she’s the safest pair of hands they’ve got.
“But the truth is, she’s under enormous pressure and fears are growing that it could all lead to her quitting the show.”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday at 6.20pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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