Countdown star Rachel Riley has said she’d rather swim with great white sharks than be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing for a second time.
The 39-year-old TV star took part in the BBC dance competition for the 2013 series and was eliminated in the sixth week alongside her now-husband and professional dancer Pasha Kovalev.
Most recently, Riley has appeared on the ITV show Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, alongside a host of celebrities including comedian Sir Lenny Henry, Amandaland star Lucy Punch and McFly’s Dougie Poynter.
The programme saw the famous faces arrive at the island of Bimini in the Bahamas and quickly plunge into the Atlantic ocean alongside “one of the most feared and persecuted animals on the planet”.
Speaking to Christine Lampard on Lorraine, Riley said this terrifying ordeal was nothing compared to facing the Strictly Come Dancing judges and the programme's millions of loyal viewers each week.
“Blue sky and blue sea, you know what you’re getting,” she said of her time on Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters. “Strictly is just a whole level of other stuff – I’d take great whites over Strictly.”
Back in 2021, Riley claimed her time on the BBC dance competition had left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and revealed she underwent cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to recover from it.
“If I heard the theme music, I’d start reliving the experience. It was scary and unnerving, so my way of dealing with it is to avoid watching,” she said.
Riley acknowledged the one positive of her time on the show was meeting her husband, Kovalev, 45, who she married in 2019 and has since welcomed two children with. “He’s just amazing,” she said.
Strictly Come Dancing is set to return for another season this autumn with a brand new batch of stars ready to hit the dance floor.
The celebrity contestants for the 2025 series are yet to be revealed, but rumoured names include Sort Your Life Out presenter Stacey Solomon, Neighbours star Stefan Dennis, EastEnders actor Bovinder Sopal, Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattison, Olympic athlete Mo Farah and Love Island star Dani Dyer, the daughter of actor Danny Dyer.
