Johannes Radebe has opened up about the tragic circumstances which prompted a conversation with his mother about his sexuality. While speaking about his upcoming solo tour, Freedom, on the podcast Reign with Josh Smith, the Strictly star revealed that his friend was murdered in a homophobic attack.
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He explained: "I only discussed my sexuality with my mom in 2019 after that heels performance on Strictly, so you can imagine that barrier and it hasn't been great.
WATCH: Strictly's John and Johannes dance the Argentine Tango
"How we actually ended up talking about it was because a friend of mine was murdered and she came home and she said, 'Did you hear about Pule?' I said, 'Yes and did she hear why it happened?' And she said, 'No. I said, 'Because it was a homophobic attack,' and she was lost for words.
Johannes performed in the first all-male partnership with John
"I said its sad because that could have happened to me because I'm gay, you know. We've never, ever, ever fully spoken about it. There's also lots of my life experience that I haven't shared with the people that I really, really, really love, which is my family. Hence why I've also been sceptical about getting into relationships with other men, I think I could never be in a position to just trust somebody like that with everything about my life. I'm grown now and I'm seeing things differently and I'm in a position to speak to my mom about everything now in my life."
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During the chat, Johannes also admitted that he was "in love" with his dancing co-star John Whaite, who he performed with as the show's first-ever all-male pairing. "I'm in love with the man," he explained. "And I know he's a married man - soon to be - but let me tell you something, people come into your life and you just don't know how you've been doing without them this entire time."
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