Strictly hosts announce departure from hit show

STRICTLY Come Dancing hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have announced they are leaving the BBC dance programme.

- LAUREN DEL FABBRO

In a joint statement shared on Instagram yesterday, the co-hosts, who have fronted the series together since 2014, said they would be leaving the show at the end of the current series.

"We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream," they said. "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. They're the most brilliant team and we'll miss them every day.

"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."

Daly, 56, presented the series since it first launched in 2004 alongside the late Sir Bruce Forsyth, while Winkleman, 53, fronted its weekday companion show, It Takes Two.

Winkleman eventually moved on to host the Sunday-night results show alongside Daly and joined the main show every Saturday from 2014, after Sir Bruce stepped down.

The pair picked up the entertainment programme gong at the Bafta TV Awards in 2024 and were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King's Birthday Honours for their services to broadcasting.

Following the announcement, the duo both shared separate posts on their Instagram pages with a string of photographs.

Winkleman said: "It's very difficult to put into words exactly what Strictly has meant to me. It's been the greatest relationship of my career.

"I've always believed it's best to leave a party before you're fully ready to go and I know the new hosts will be magnificent, I look forward to watching them take Strictly to new heights. As for Tess - I'm so so lucky I got to stand next to you. You're funny, kind, whip-smart and a true friend and I love you."