WALTZING OFF
Strictly fan favourite set to quit show after finding fame away from BBC dancefloor
The in-demand star has two huge projects on the horizon away from the Saturday night ratings winner
STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Johannes Radebe is poised to waltz off at the end of this series - as he becomes the latest pro to get too big for the show.
The South African star of the BBC One contest - who’s said to be a favourite of Queen Camilla - will perform in Kinky Boots The Musical for the first seven months of 2025 as well as turning his life story into a movie.
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Johannes, 37, has seen his profile soar since joining Strictly in 2018, which was never more obvious than last Sunday when he was the lead performer in a Beyonce medley as the rest of the pros were effectively his back-up dancers.
A Strictly insider said: “Johannes is hugely loved on the show and there isn’t an atom of bad feeling about him leaving.
“Both he and the show’s bosses realise he is overwhelmed with work as a result of his soaring popularity and wish him all the best.
“But nobody can ever get so big that they continually take up too much limelight - the star of the show must always be the show itself.
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“That was something obvious when even Sir Bruce Forsyth left his hosting job, even though he was synonymous with Strictly.
“It was a similar story when his fellow South African pro Oti Mabuse left two years ago - and she went on to bigger things too.
“Of course, bosses will probably try to find a way to bring him back at some point and he would no doubt consider returning.
“But for now, he just has too much to juggle alongside the contest. It isn’t just the announced projects that he’s working on, there are other opportunities in the pipeline too, which he can now explore further.”
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Johannes is paired this year with Montell Douglas - aka Fire from Gladiators - and has consistently delivered sensational performances that have seen them among the highest scoring couples.
He’s continually won over viewers over the past six years, particularly when he formed the first all male pairing in the programme’s history along with Great British Bake Off winner, John Whaite.
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Johannes’ fans include Queen Camilla herself who was beaming when she met him on a royal visit to Cambridge earlier this year and gushed about how much of a fan of the show she is.
He has increasingly been appearing on other programmes as a star in his own right, whether its The Graham Norton Show, Loose Women or a recent cameo in Doctor Who.
And the Sun exclusively revealed last year that he was making a movie based on his autobiography, Jojo: Finally Home, which looks at how he went from poverty in his homeland to stardom on the Strictly dancefloor.
From January to July he will be one of the lead characters in the tour of Kinky Boots The Musical, which is written by pop legend Cyndi Lauper.
He will perform over 200 shows in 25 different cities across the UK and Ireland, stretching from Dublin to Plymouth and Brighton to Edinburgh.
That means Johannes is already missing the official Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour which also kicks off in January with most of the pros taking part.
A spokesman for Johannes and Strictly declined to comment.
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