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Leaving the dancefloor: Winkleman and Daly to bow out as hosts of BBC's Strictly
The Guardian
|October 24, 2025
'After 21 joyful years on Strictly we have decided the time is right to step aside and pass the baton'
Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have announced that they are quitting as hosts of Strictly Come Dancing.
In a post on both presenters’ Instagram accounts, Winkleman said: “There have been some rumblings and we want you to hear this from us.”
Daly continued: “We have some news. After 21 wonderfully joyful years on Strictly we have decided that the time is right to step aside and pass over the baton.”
“The very sparkly baton!” added Winkleman.
“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. 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...
“We will cry when we say our last ‘Keep dancing!’ but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza!”
This story is from the October 24, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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