Fan-favourite Johannes Radebe nearly quit Strictly Come Dancing after he was paired with Annabel Croft during the 2023 series.
The professional dancer, who placed fourth after being partnered with the former tennis player, considered dropping out ahead of the series' first episode.
The BBC star revealed how he almost dismissed their partnership as they were still "raw" over their respective bereavements.
Johannes Radebe nearly quit Strictly Come Dancing after pairing with Annabel Croft
Appearing on the Table Manners podcast hosted by Jessie and Lennie Ware, Johannes Radebe expressed his previous reservations about working with her.
When asked about Annabel Croft's deep sadness at losing her 60-year-old husband Mel Coleman just months before signing up to take part in Strictly Come Dancing, he opened up about his own bereavement.
He said: "When they said I'm dancing with her, I was like 'what are they trying to achieve?' And I say that because two weeks before I started, I buried my cousin who committed suicide."
Going on to discuss his emotions, the star added: "So, I didn't feel like... honestly I didn't feel like anything. Y'know, I wasn't as excited as I normally would be because I was like 'this is supposed to be the most exciting period. I've just come back off a very successful tour'. But I had to then go home."
"I could have stayed out there for longer but after we buried him I had to fly back [to the UK] and do my audiobook. That was hard, and when Strictly started, I was just like, okay, just felt like I was going through the motions."
The Strictly Come Dancing star went on to describe how dealing with his personal life was difficult during the show, adding that he was sceptical about the partnership
He said: "And yeah, they said 'we think that you're the person to partner this woman'. And I just said to myself, 'they're reaching'."
He added: "I remember calling my agent. I was like 'I don't know what's trying to happen. Maybe we should say that I shouldn't get a partner this year because I just really need some time out'."
However, he went on to share that despite his initial concerns about being partnered with the former athlete, she had "helped" him and suggested that they both "needed each other".
He finished by saying: "A lot of people say 'oh Johannes, you helped Annabel' but no, Annabel helped me."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here