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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
World
Laycie Beck

Gorka Marquez shares reason he won't be taking part in Strictly Come Dancing arena tour

A professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing has shared with fans why he decided not to take part in this year's arena tour. Gorka Marquez reached the 2022 final of the show alongside Countryfile presenter Helen Skelton, but the pair lost out to Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal.

It was recently announced Helen would be dancing alongside Kai Widdrington during the live shows, and so Gorka took to Instagram to reply to fans about why he would not be part of the show. He explained: “After the Strictly series I always like to take some down time to spend quality time with Gem and Mia.

“I am grateful for the work but I also think spend time with family is important. Time flies and we won't get those memories back,” alongside a love heart emoji, reports the Daily Mirror.

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In a follow-up post Gorka shared a selfie of him and Helen, urging his followers to snap up tickets to the arena tour. The news came after the 32-year-old made it to the final for a third time, but lost out at the last hurdle.

Eagle-eyed fans believed the experience might be becoming hard for the professional dancer to bear, with many viewers noticing his reaction to losing at the end of 2022 in one of the closest finals to date.

Fans and dancers eagerly awaited for the latest winner of the Glitterball to be called by Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, and then wildlife cameraman Hamza and professional dancer Jowita broke down in tears as they were victorious. However, whilst most of the contestants appeared cheerful at the result, Spanish star Gorka was spotted stone-faced when the camera panned onto him.

Fans of the show quickly took to social media to share their thoughts of his reaction, with one Twitter user questioning: "Was Gorka gutted or livid?" Another wrote: "ooh Gorka looks fuming here," while a third added: "Fleur and Vito so humble and happy for the winners. Gorka looks fuming."

Many fans believed he was right to look so upset and claimed he was "robbed" yet again. One person commented: "Gorka is fuming and rightly so! Helen has won in so many ways. Good on her and she is my winner!"

Another agreed and slammed the final result. They wrote: "Nah that was fully the wrong call. Don’t get me wrong I loved Hamza throughout the series, but he wasn’t the best on the night so didn’t deserve the win! Poor Gorka’s wee face - Helen was robbed!"

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