Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti Mabuse has claimed this year’s series will be her last.
Oti is currently the reigning Strictly champ, after being partnered with Bill Bailey on the 2020 series of the BBC dance show.
This marked the first time in Strictly history that a professional dancer had won the show two years in a row, as she previously triumphed with Kelvin Fletcher a year earlier.
It’s already been confirmed that Oti could be about to make it a hat-trick as she’s on the professional line-up for this year’s series, but she’s now told The Sun that she’ll probably be bowing out at the end of it.
“I love to dance and love bringing joy to so many people, but I think [this year’s series of Strictly] will be the last,” she told the tabloid.
The 30-year-old performer also praised the strides Strictly had taken in terms of diversity in recent years, in particular praising the inclusion of disabled contestants like JJ Chalmers and Will Bayley.
She said: “To be part of a show which is so diverse is incredible. It always pushes to open new doors… I’m sure they will have a male same-sex couple this year.”
Oti joined Strictly in 2015, and has since gone on to dance with stars like boxer Anthony Ogogo, actor Danny Mac and Paralympian Jonnie Peacock.
Since her rise to fame on Strictly, she’s appeared as a judge on the BBC reality show The Greatest Dancer, and is set to be a panellist on ITV’s new show The Masked Dancer later this year.
Strictly Come Dancing will return to our screens in the autumn, with long-serving judge Craig Revel Horwood teasing we should expect a return to form after last year’s series was cut short due to the pandemic.