Former Strictly Come Dancing star Laura Whitmore has revealed that Capital FM presenter Vick Hope is the person she’s hearing will be joining the hit dance show this year. Fans can hardly contain their excitement for the start of the 2018 show, as the professional dancers already start work on their moves in the studio. And when Laura appeared on Good Morning Britain this morning to discuss the anticipated Strictly line up, she admitted Vick was the one rumoured contestant she had heard would be entering the show.
Vick Hope is rumoured to be joining the show
Laura, who appeared on the show in 2016 with her pro partner Giovanni Pernice, has spoken subsequently about how tough the experience was for her - especially as she was partnered with Giovanni who had just split up with his then-girlfriend Georgia May Foote. "I’m still not ready to talk in depth about my experience on the show," she wrote in a blog this April. "I love dancing – I topped the leaderboard twice – but before it even began, I was thrown into the lion’s den and into the middle of someone’s break-up that had nothing to do with me."
MORE: Stars who survived the Strictly Curse
The high-profile, so-called Strictly Curse is something which reports claim is putting married celebs off the idea of signing on the dotted line to take part in the 2018 show. GMB presenter Ben Shephard admitted during his chat with Laura this morning that he had been approached to take part in the show this year - but that he wasn’t going to do it. The reason? His wife was nervous about the Strictly curse, he joked.
Laura says her time on Strictly was very stressful
But while Ben was being light hearted, there have been a number of relationships which haven’t survived the Strictly heat - including rugby star Ben Cohen, who split from his wife Abby after appearing on the program and now has a daughter with his new partner in life (and on Strictly) Kristina Rihanoff. In 2016 Louise Redknapp also found Strictly to be a life-changing experience, eventually resulting in the split from her husband Jamie.
MORE: See this year's full rumoured lineup
Talking in her blog earlier this year, Laura continued: "Once again, I was a 'rumoured love interest'. I was placed with a dance partner I was extremely uncomfortable with – and in the end I felt broken. I cried every day. And I really was broken, both mentally and physically, by the end. To the outside world I tried to suck it up and smile, and I did that to the best of my ability, but it affected me deeply."