Oti Mabuse addresses Strictly Come Dancing's 'ups and downs' as she confirms return

Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse has revealed her behind-the-scenes role on the BBC show after quitting in 2021 as she opens up about the new series. The professional dancer appeared on BBC Breakfast today to speak about her new novel.

However, the chat soon turned to Strictly Come Dancing - and wherever rumours of her return to the huge BBC dance competition were true. The 2025 series will see the likes of Love Island's Dani Dyer, EastEnders' Balvinder Sopal, Emmerdale's Lewis Cope and Lorraine's Ross King among other stars.

There are just days to go before the show's launch but Strictly has already been making headlines for the wrong reasons. Ex Apprentice star Thomas Skinner stormed out of the show's press interviews earlier this month after snatching a reporter's phone.

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He later revealed that it was he had caught a glimpse of numerous messages about "a personal story from my past" on the journalist's phone and felt it was "best to step away". This weekend, he admitted that he cheated on his wife Sinead just two weeks after they married in 2022.

Now, Oti has teased the upcoming series after the dramatic last few weeks for the BBC show. Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Oti confirmed that she is back on the show - but as a choreographer.

"Everywhere I go people are like, 'You're going back!' I'm like, 'I'm just changing diapers at the moment,'" the new mum said. "So I'm just choreographing, I've done two before and this will be my third year.

"I love it. Working with the professionals there, they're so talented and hard-working." She added that she only works with the professionals.

"At that point, it's much later in the series so there'll be a few of them with time on their hands. So we'll work at the beginning of the week and get to Saturday."

Opening up about the show to come, she added: "I think it's going to be a great series, there's so many ups and downs and it has the potential to be."

Oti joined Strictly in 2015 and during her six year stint, she won the show consecutively in 2019 with Kelvin Fletcher and again in 2020 with Bill Bailey. She left after the following series and became a judge on The Greatest Dancer and then Dancing on Ice.

In 2023, she announced the arrive of her first child with husband Marius Iepure. The dancing pair married in 2014.

Over the weekend, Strictly released a first look at the 2025 cast in their sequinned launch show outfits. Vicky Pattinson and Balvinder Sopal stunned in bright colours, with the former Geordie Shore star wearing bright yellow, while the EastEnders star opted for a a turquoise dress.

BBC Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One.

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