Strictly Come Dancing contestant Krishnan Guru-Murthy has revealed that he is struggling with his "dodgy heart condition" during rehearsals for the 2023 series.
The journalist, who is best known for presenting Channel 4 News, took to his Instagram Stories with a mirror selfie on Saturday and told his followers that he had to "get over being uncoordinated with a dodgy heart condition" to progress in rehearsals.
He penned: "Friday was so much fun. The cast of Strictly are brilliant and lovely. The pro dancers are truly awe-inspiring.
"Now, I just need to get over being unfit, overweight and uncoordinated with a dodgy heart condition and it will be great!
© Krishnan Guru-Murthy/Instagram"I think the next few weeks are going to be amazing," he added.
The 53-year-old has a genetic heart condition, like his father, and first divulged this information on Twitter, now known as X, back in 2021.
Krishnan clearly isn't going to let his condition hold him back and is determined to give his all on the show. He joins the likes of Les Dennis, Angela Scanlon and Angela Rippon in the 2023 line-up of contestants.
His participation was announced on Claudia Winkleman's BBC Radio 2 show earlier this month. He said he signed up for the programme "for the fun. I love my job. It’s very, very privileged, I go to amazing places. I talk to amazing people, but it’s incredibly serious.
"It's quite stressful. It can be quite difficult and sort of the idea of being able to have pure intravenous joy, because I'm going to be doing the news at the same time, is just irresistible."
He went on to say: "I told my wife first obviously and I sort of said: 'What do you think? Do you think I should do it?' And she was like: 'Yes definitely do it.' Which is funny, because we've talked about it in the past and we were all like 'no never', but something changed this year. I think we all just kind of thought, now's the time. Just do it."
© Tom Nicholson/ShutterstockHe added: "And I have an 18-year-old daughter who thought it was a brilliant idea, and I have a 16-year-old son, who … I'm really, really sorry, I just have to apologise to him … but yeah, he's appalled."
MORE: Strictly Come Dancing 2023: All you need to know – judges, line-up, start date, and more
MORE: Strictly's Les Dennis reveals staggering 3 stone weight loss after alarming health scare
In an official statement released by the BBC, Krishnan said of joining the line-up: "I'm surprised, delighted and slightly confused to find myself taking part in Strictly on the basis of 'you only live once!' and I can't wait to start learning to dance, but I am slightly worried about my general decrepitude.
"I know I'm going to love it and have a brilliant time and just hope I'm not the only one enjoying my participation."
The show is set to kick off in the autumn, with Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman at the helm as hosts.
Shirley Ballas will return in the role of head judge and will be joined by Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood.
Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far
- 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
- 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett)
- 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova)
- 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy)
- 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler)
- 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup)
- 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan)
- 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev)
- 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
- 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec)
- 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev)
- 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani)
- 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton)
- 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
- 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
- 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse)
- 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice)
- 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
- 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)
