21 Celebrities Who Turned Down Strictly Come Dancing (And Their Reasons Why)

For a host of celebrities, the idea of learning a new skill, boosting your public profile and stepping out of your comfort zone is a huge draw when Strictly Come Dancing come calling.

However, not everyone finds the idea of the Strictly ballroom so irresistible.

Indeed, every year big names from the worlds of music, TV, sport and politics turn the BBC down flat. Here are 21 of those stars who gave Strictly the thumbs down, and their reasons for saying no…

Gyles Brandreth

David Levenson via Getty Images

The Celebrity Gogglebox star and Countdown regular has spoken candidly about turning down Strictly down on multiple occasions, revealing there’s one major thing holding him back from saying yes.

I ain’t got rhythm… I REALLY ain’t got rhythm,” he tweeted in August 2022.

Steph McGovern

Dave J Hogan via Getty Images

The daytime favourite told HuffPost UK in 2022 that she’d been approached about signing up for Strictly Come Dancing several times, but had never been able to make it work with her schedule.

“I love the show and so many of my mates have been on it and they’ve all loved it,” the Steph’s Packed Lunch host said. “If I do it, I want to totally commit to it and as things stand, it would be near on impossible. I would worry about my little girl and not seeing her for so long.

“It’s interesting because the very first time I was asked to do it was probably when I should have done it, but then I had a baby. I’ll always say never say never but I’d just want to give it my all if I ever do it.”

Piers Morgan

Dominic Lipinski via PA Wire/PA Images

The former Good Morning Britain host told The Sun in 2018 that he has no desire to “humiliate” himself on Strictly, despite the apparent vast amounts of money he claimed producers were willing to offer him.

“Dancing is not for me,” Piers explained. “They’ve offered me vast sums of money to go and humiliate myself on national TV.

“But I prefer to do it with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in the privacy of my own home.”

Melanie C

JOCE/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

However, Sporty Spice has a rather different experience of being offered a spot on the Strictly dance floor to Piers.

She claimed in 2016 that a major factor for her turning down Strictly “every year” was the fact that the money they offer is, in her words, “shit”.

“I have had a meeting with them – they ask me every year to do it,” she told the Daily Star. “The problem is if you do Strictly it’s so high profile and you’ll find yourself in the [Daily Mail’s] sidebar of shame every day. And the money’s shit!”

Melanie later followed in the footsteps of bandmate Mel B by appearing on the US version of the show, Dancing With The Stars, in 2021, where she and partner Gleb Savchenko (ahhh, remember him?) finished in 11th place.

Patrick Stewart

Michael Kovac via Getty Images

In 2017, the Star Trek legend was guest hosting Have I Got News For You when he let slip that he was a Strictly fan, and had even considered signing up for it when the BBC made him an offer.

It’s a wonderful show, it’s delightful. I wanted to [do it] at the beginning,” he explained, before cryptically adding: “And then the tone, it changed somewhat, and I thought…. yeah, I’ll pass.”

Dawn French

David M. Benett via Getty Images

On their podcast Titting Around, the Vicar Of Dibley star told comedy partner Jennifer Saunders she’d only be up for taking part on Strictly on one condition.

“If I did it, I’d want to properly dance. I’d want to be taken seriously and you can’t. At this age, you’re not taken seriously,” she claimed.

“I want the nicest dresses, the most elegant other dancer and to take it seriously, and nobody would want that.”

Jennifer agreed: “We’re up for making people laugh. We’re not up to be laughed at, that’s the big difference.”

Dawn reiterated this point in 2022, telling Graham Norton on his talk show: “I might have been asked to do Strictly, but I fear I would be regarded as the funny one and made to do silly things.

“I take dancing seriously and I would like to do proper dancing.”

Alan Carr

Dave J Hogan via Getty Images

Meanwhile, fellow comic Alan Carr had a rather x-rated concern that led to him saying no to Strictly.

He revealed on his podcast Life’s A Beach: “I get asked about what I think about same-sex dancing and I say no… I say no because I’d get a lob on if I dance with Aljaž [Škorjanec] or Gorka [Marquez].

“If I get on a bus, the vibrations make me hard. So doing the Argentine tango, forget it – that’s a sexy dance.”

He did agree with Dawn in a previous interview with Radio Times, though, insisting: “They always ask me to do Strictly and I say no because I want to be sexy doing the Argentine tango; I don’t want to be a joke.”

Nadiya Hussain

MelMedia via Getty Images

Unlike fellow Bake Off winner John Whaite, Nadiya declined Strictly’s offer to learn to dance, as she simply loves the show too much.

“I got asked to do Strictly, but I said no,” she told The Guardian. “I love the idea, but have no rhythm and I enjoy watching it too much; once you see how a programme works from the inside, it changes how you see it. That’s why I can’t watch Bake Off like I used to.”

Mary Berry

Jeff Spicer via Getty Images

Nadiya’s pal, former Bake Off judge Mary, has also turned down multiple offers from Strictly.

“My husband and children would kill me!” she told Radio Times in 2016. “I have two left feet and would make a terrible fool of myself.”

Alan Titchmarsh

Samir Hussein via Getty Images

Gardening expert Alan said he prefers a cosy night in front of the box to being on it these days.

“I’ve been asked to go on both Strictly and I’m A Celebrity and you won’t see me on either,” he insisted in 2021.

“I’m very flattered to have been asked, but all things considered, I’d rather sit down and watch Doc Martin, which my children call ‘old fogey television’. I’m happy to be an old fogey.”

Maya Jama

David M. Benett via Getty Images

Back in 2018, the Love Island host revealed she declined the opportunity to appear on Strictly as she felt she’d be one of the lesser-known contestants.

“I don’t think now is the right time, maybe later in life,” she told Good Morning Britain.

Two years later, she told Hello! magazine: “I love a dance, so I wouldn’t say no forever.”

Greg James

David Levenson via Getty Images

During 2020’s “pandemic” series, several celebs who’d previously turned Strictly down because they were too busy found themselves with a freer schedule, and therefore signed up.

However, Greg was not one of them.

Although Strictly did make him an offer, the Radio 1 host said the previous 12 months had left him “too tired” to say yes.

Kate Humble

Kate Humble
Kate Humble

TV Times via Getty Images

Unlike many of the stars on this list, the Springwatch host got pretty far through the process of trying out for Strictly, only to change her mind when things started getting a little bit too real.

“My agent phoned me up to tell me Strictly wanted me to do the show,” she told The Mirror in 2017. “I hooted with laughter at the thought and then went back in to tell the Springwatch team what I had been asked to do. They looked at me and said ‘you have to do Strictly’. It started to make me wonder if I was being really stupid as it is such a great show.”

Kate continued: “When we got to the meeting, the more talk there was of sequins, make-up and It Takes Two, the more I could feel myself pouring with sweat… I was literally about to have a panic attack at the thought of wearing make-up and dresses! My agent realised and gently put her hand on my knee as if to say ‘it’s OK, don’t worry’.”

Matt Willis

Mike Lewis Photography via Getty Images

The Busted star told OK! magazine in 2021 that he’d rebuffed Strictly every time they came knocking due to the “pressure” of being on live TV.

“The idea of Strictly terrifies me,” he admitted. “I’ve been asked a few times and always said no. Can you imagine standing there and suddenly you hear: ‘Tonight, dancing the cha-cha-cha, it’s Matt Willis!’

“You know something like 12 million people are watching – no thanks.”

However, it doesn’t sound like Matt had much choice in the matter.

His wife Emma Willis claimed in 2016: “He’s an amazing dancer… but I don’t want him grinding against hot women. I do get jealous, but I think that’s normal.”

Noel Edmonds

Clive Mason via Getty Images

Meanwhile, it seems Noel also couldn’t shake the infamous Strictly “curse” from his mind when the BBC came knocking.

He previously claimed: “I have been asked to do Strictly. [Noel’s wife] is a fully-trained singer and dancer and a couple of years ago she said, ‘Why don’t we cheat? Why don’t we say you’re a novice and I’ll teach you before’.

“Then I think there was one of those curse moments and I said to her, ‘Are you comfortable with me spending five or six days a week with a half-naked woman draped all over me?’ And it’s funny how the conversation just changed.”

He added: “I would be a cross between Ann Widdecombe and John Sergeant. But in my head I’m Fred Astaire. I don’t know why, nothing works — it’s hopeless, so I’d never do it.”

Diane Abbott

SOPA Images via Getty Images

When fellow MP Jacqui Smith signed up for the show in 2020, Diane Abbott admitted she’d also been approached in the past, but wasn’t interested.

“You’ll be surprised to know I’m not someone with natural rhythm and I didn’t want it exposed to millions of television viewers,” the Labour MP commented at the time.

Louis Walsh

Anthony Devlin via Getty Images

Back in the days when X Factor and Strictly were still considered TV rivals, long-serving judge Louis admitted that there was a time he came close to jumping ship, during one of his and Simon Cowell’s numerous spats.

He told Heat magazine in 2007: “The funny thing was, the day before the call from The X Factor [asking him to return], I got a call to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing! I thought: ‘I’d love to do it, just to annoy Simon!’.”

Michelle Keegan

Neil Mockford via Getty Images

Undoubtedly one of the most-rumoured celebs in Strictly history, Michelle is named in the press as a potential contestant pretty much every single year, but has never actually made it into the ballroom yet.

I have [been asked] a few times,” she told Jonathan Ross in 2021. “But for me, it’s the live audience… it’s a skill. It takes a lot of dedication and skill.

“[Mark Wright, Michelle’s husband] did it, like, five years ago. It’s the music before it happens and the audience is really quiet and the lights come on. My heart was in my mouth for him. I couldn’t be on the dance floor, I’d be too scared, too nervous.”

Gordon Ramsay

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Although the TV chef’s daughter Tilly Ramsay made a big impression on Strictly in 2021, the man himself is less keen to take part, even refusing a one-off appearance in the Christmas special.

“I would love to do it, though,” he admitted. “Secretly, I’d love to do it. I’ve always wanted to dance.”

Noel Gallagher

Jim Dyson via Getty Images

This is a tough one to imagine, but the former Oasis star was contacted about taking part during what he described as his period of “not doing anything”.

“It was just when Oasis split up and I didn’t do anything for like a couple of years,” he recalled to BBC Radio 6. “There’s obviously someone there going ‘You know what. He’ll be up for it now. He’ll be desperate now’.

“My manager called me up, saying I don’t really want to, legally, I have to inform you of this. Are you aware of Strictly Come Dancing?’. ‘Eeeeeeee, the phone goes’.”

Meghan Markle

Max Mumby/Indigo via Getty Images

OK, we’d probably take this one with a pinch of salt, but it was too good not to include anyway.

In Tom Bower’s book Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War Between The Windsors, the author claimed that the future Duchess of Sussex first travelled to the UK in 2013, where she apparently set up an audition for Strictly.

Unfortunately, she was still acting in Suits at the time, and her schedule – which required her to be in the US for nine months out of the year – meant she had to “reluctantly” decline.

Strictly Come Dancing returns for its landmark 20th series in September.

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Piers Morgan Blasts Steph McGovern For ‘Gobbing Off’ About His TalkTV Ratings On Have I Got News For You

On Friday’s episode of the BBC’s news and politics comedy panel show, guest presenter Steph referred to his TalkTV show Piers Morgan Uncensored as “Piers Morgan Unwatched”.

“What’s she been up to this week?,” Steph asked panellists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.

Paul replied: “She took over Piers Morgan’s TV show. He’s been on holiday, and it didn’t go well.”

Steph then sarcastically told the audience: “Nadine Dorries has been sitting in on Piers Morgan’s ‘smash-hit’ TalkTV show, Piers Morgan: Unwatched!”

On Saturday, Piers fired back at Steph on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of a two-year-old story in the Sun that claimed Steph’s own Channel 4 show registered zero viewers when it first launched.

“Hear you were gobbing off about my ⁦@PiersUncensored⁩ ratings on #HIGFY last night ⁦@StephLunch⁩ – you sure you’re the best person to do that?” he tweeted.

Steph has yet to respond.

Despite it taking Dorries just 12 seconds to mess up during her presenting of Piers’ TalkTV show, she was a ratings hit.

The MP reportedly pulled in 26,000 viewers, while Piers averages 14,000-19,000 viewers.

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Steph McGovern Interview: ‘I Got My Muff Out On Telly So Nothing Can Be Really Embarrassing’

“My god, that was a moment, wasn’t it?”

Steph McGovern is recalling her recent night out at the launch of ABBA’s Voyage live show and is being typically down-to-earth about the fact she was considered a VIP guest.

“I felt quite honoured actually. I was like ‘how did I manage to blag this?’”

It’s this genuine “she’s-one-of-us” charm that has helped the Middlesbrough native go from the Beeb’s business reporter to hosting her own daily Channel 4 show. Since its launch in September 2020, the show has gradually won over more and more viewers thanks to its mix of real issues, real people and lots of laughs, and earned a Bafta nomination in the process.

“I always wanted it to be a place where… I kind of liken it to a blended family,” Steph explains. “Slightly dysfunctional and you’re not necessarily going to like all of us all of the time and you might find one or two of us irritating, but you liken them to your annoying auntie who you still wouldn’t throw out of your family even if you don’t agree with them.”

“Fundamentally at our core is just people who like having a laugh and who are nice to each other.”

Steph helms the show, but is joined by a rotating cast of her celeb mates that includes Bake Off and Strictly star John Whaite, TV presenter Denise Van Outen, former rugby player Gareth Thomas, ex footballer Chris Kamara, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Reverend Kate Bottley.

“Fundamentally at our core is just people who like having a laugh and who are nice to each other,” she says of her “gang”, a quality she feels is sorely missed from a lot of what’s on the box these days.

“You might think on paper that’ll make for boring telly, because everyone seems to be obsessed with people fighting and controversy and people going up against each other with opposing views, but that’s not my style at all.

“I don’t really like confrontation and I’ve had to do a fair bit of it when I’ve interviewed politicians in the past, but for me it’s just about learning from people who have had different life experiences.”

Despite leaving the notoriously bureaucratic BBC in 2020 after 13 years, Steph hasn’t got a bad word to say about her former employer.

“I absolutely loved my time at the BBC,” she insists. “I think the difference doing Channel 4… it’s a bit more freeing in the sense of it’s my own show. But I didn’t feel like I was ever silenced or censored at the BBC.”

That said, we can’t imagine the Beeb ever signing off on her having a smear test done on live TV, and she’s typically candid about doing just that on Packed Lunch.

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“I’ve literally got my muff out on the telly so once you’ve done that I don’t think there is anything that can be really embarrassing,” she laughs.

“Because I’ve always done live telly, there’s been loads of things over the years,” she adds. “When I was on BBC Breakfast my dress once split down the whole back of it and we had to do a camera angle where someone could gaffer tape it to stop it from totally exposing me.

“I was talking about really serious stuff as well like the economy and I’m nearly flashing me boobs. But anything that happens on Packed Lunch I can normally just have a laugh about it.”

And we love her all the more for it: whether it’s cold water swimming in Leeds dock with Kate Bottley (“What is fun about this Kate?”) or almost decorating the Packed Lunch kitchen after trying one of chef Simon Rimmer’s more unusual lunches (“He made me eat his sardines with beans and sausages in a tin and that was vile. I don’t like to criticise people but that genuinely made me hurl.”)

©Tom Martin

As well as being up for almost anything on her show (“I’m not an animal person”), Steph has been juggling the success of Packed Lunch with being a first-time mum.

It was only when she announced her pregnancy that the outside world discovered she was a gay woman.

“I was never asked if I’m honest,” Steph says about her sexuality. “I think because I didn’t necessarily look like a gay woman I don’t think people ever bothered to ask me.

“And so my kind of coming out was being pregnant, because obviously everyone then asked questions. Also, I grew up in the era where, although there weren’t that many gay women on telly, I felt like there were loads around me in my social setting, so I didn’t feel like I needed to do a big thing of ‘hello I am gay’.”

Despite being out to her friends and living in an era where someone’s sexuality – regardless of their fame – is usually about as interesting as what they had for their (packed) lunch, Steph admits she was still “anxious” about the story breaking.

“A paper found out and they wanted to publish that I was pregnant and I managed to bat it off for a while,” she recalls. “And then eventually I couldn’t, and so me and my partner didn’t know how it was going to go down because I had another friend – she’s high-profile – when she came out she did get a bit of abuse.

“I just thought for my unborn child, I’m already really protective of her and I’m really super protective of my partner as well, and so I thought ‘right, let’s just take ourselves away and escape what madness might come from this’. And so we went to a place I love in Wensleydale, a really quiet country hotel.”

That decision proved to the presenter and her partner that they really had nothing much to worry about – apart from their unborn child.

“We were there for a night and the next morning we knew the story was going to be in the papers and when we came into breakfast this little old couple sat opposite us and I thought they’d recognised me and they just lent over to both myself and my partner and said congratulations to both of us,” Steph recalls.

“I get emotional because that made everything alright, because it was a couple you could have easily assumed would have frowned upon it, but the way they were so inclusive to say that to both myself and my partner instantly made us feel that actually this is a brilliant world for our little girl to be born into.”

“Our job as happy, confident gay women is to tell people and make them aware of where they’ve got it wrong, because it’s not malicious.”

That said, Steph acknowledges that despite being “amazing at tag-teaming” with her partner in the care of their two-year-old, there will be unique challenges ahead as same-sex parents but sees it as “our job as happy, confident gay women to tell people and make them aware of where they’ve got it wrong, because it’s not malicious”.

She adds: “We don’t do it in a big ranty way, it’s just reminding people. And I’m really lucky that I’ve lots of friends who have done it before us and paved the way. It’s not as scary as you might think.”

Although she’d be too modest to say it herself, Steph is blazing a trail of her own, simply by being her own authentic self on a primetime daily show and being a role model for young queer people in the process.

“On telly and stuff [growing up] it didn’t really feel like there were many gay women who looked like me because you know, I’m quite girly and love my hair and make-up and stuff.

“Of course I love people like Sue Perkins and Clare Balding and Sandi Toksvig but I didn’t really feel like them. Like I think they’re amazing and I guess they are role models for gay women but they’re older than me and I didn’t feel like they represented me.”

So what does the future hold for the star? Right now she’s got her hands full with a five-day-a-week show and a toddler, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t fancy following in the footsteps of her Packed Lunch mates John Whaite, Denise Van Outen and Gemma Atkinson by taking to the Strictly dance floor.

“I love the show and so many of my mates have been on it and they’ve all loved it,” she says.

“If I do it I want to totally commit to it and as things stand, it would be near on impossible. I would worry about my little girl and not seeing her for so long. It’s interesting because the very first time I was asked to do it was probably when I should have done it, but then I had a baby. I’ll always say never say never but I’d just want to give it my all if I ever do it.”

Finally, I remind her that after Boris Johnson once described former Prime Minister David Cameron as a “girly swot”, she responded by telling the PM: “I am a girly swot and I’m proud of it. Let’s see who’s in their job the longest.”

I ask why she thinks he’s managed to survive for so long.

“No comment,” she laughs. “Well, you know, I work for Channel 4 so it’s not in my interest to go to war with the man who’s deciding whether we get privatised or not. I learned from the past.”

Our money’s on Steph.

Steph’s Packed Lunch airs Monday to Friday at 12.30pm on Channel 4 and All4.

Steph’s Packed Lunch Pride Special – Friday 1 July, 11.30am, Channel 4 & All 4.This episode of Steph’s Packed Lunch is part of Channel 4′s season of landmark programmes and specials marking 50 years of Pride in the UK, reflecting on the incredible achievements and challenges of advancing LGBTQ+ rights and visibility over the last half century.

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