Strictly Come Dancing's 2024 professional champion Dianne Buswell opened up about an emotional time behind-the-scenes, amid her UK tour with co-star Vito Coppola
Dianne Buswell, one of Strictly Come Dancing's professional dancers, said she's been "struggling" backstage amid her current tour. In conversation with her former celebrity dance partner Chris McCausland, the pair discussed many topics including her latest venture and their time together on the BBC show.
Quizzed by the comedian on how her tour with Vito Coppola had been going, she confessed: "I've been struggling, I've had a struggle struggle week." Refusing to give his sympathy, Chris, 48, jokingly played some sad music following her admission.
Laughing, the 36-year-old hit back: "Don't you start! Because I did have a moment, I've cried and everything, I had a moment where I thought, 'I feel really bad when I used to be so mean to Chris about being sick'."
"Hang on, when we did Strictly, I'm just trying to think, even when I was bad or injured," he began to say before Dianne interrupted and reminded him: "You were quite sick a lot."
He proceeded to say on their Winning Isn't Everything podcast: "How many times did I cry that wasn't for joyous, emotional reasons? How many times did I cry because of illness or pain or sadness?".
After trying to "add up" the times, he then joked that it was "zero".
Defending her emotions, Dianne said women get "much more emotional" due to being more hormonal at times.
Dianne and Vito's joint venture came following the show's annual nationwide tour, which for the first time didn't feature the winner.
At the time, Chris' own tour dates overlapped with the Strictly tour, and therefore had to miss out.
In a statement, he said: "I'm afraid I will not be able to do the Strictly tour. My own tour was meant to be on the road in September and a lot of dates were moved to Jan and Feb to accommodate doing #Strictly.
"It's unfortunate as it's been so much fun, but my own dates can't be moved for a second time."
The comedian made history on last year's show as the first ever blind contestant to take part and win.
This year, a whole new bunch of celebrities will be hoping to follow in his footsteps and lift the prestigious Glitterball trophy.
The famous faces taking part will be announced at a later date, though rumoured names so far include; Helen Flanagan, Tom Parker Bowles, Sir Mo Farah, Tom Skinner and Dani Dyer.
The professional dancers confirmed to be returning to the dance floor are; reigning champion Dianne, Nadiya Bychkova, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Aljaž Škorjanec, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley, Michelle Tsiakkas and Vito.
The new series is expected to return in September.
