Good Morning Britain’s Ben Shephard admits his wife banned him from going on Strictly Come Dancing

Ben Shephard has revealed that his wife has banned him from going on Strictly Come Dancing.

The Good Morning Britain presenter discussed the ITV dancing competition earlier this week when professional dancer AJ Pritchard appeared on the morning news talk show.

24-year-old AJ, who has appeared on the ITV show (opens in new tab) since 2016, appeared on the news show with his dancer brother Curtis Pritchard, to talk to Ben and co-host Kate Garraway about the new series that started this weekend and the upcoming tour that the two brothers are doing.

However, while the group were talking, TV presenter Ben admitted that he would struggle to take part in the dancing show for one particular reason. And it had nothing to do with his dancing shoes.

The 44-year-old revealed that his wife Annie, who he has been married to since 2004, has made it clear that he is not allowed to take the part in the dancing show for fear of the infamous Strictly curse.

‘Strictly this weekend,’ said Kate, kicking off the conversation, ‘we’ve all seen the couples that you’re with.’

‘How are you feeling?’ Ben added.

‘I’m just excited to be honest,’ responded AJ, ‘that first show for the pros as much as the celebrities, we just get so excited.

‘We’ve worked so hard in the week building up to this first dance. We’ve got a Tango, Saffron (opens in new tab), there she is, she’s doing fantastic.

‘She’s putting the hard work in and really I just want her to excel,’ he added.

Ben then spoke up, making the admission that his wife didn’t like the idea of him doing the show.

‘So my wife has always been sort of pretty upfront about the fact that she doesn’t want me to do because of the curse,’ he said.

‘She says, ‘Why would I want you to go on and do that?’’, adding ‘Is it the same for the professional dancers and their partners?

‘Is your partner sort of sitting there saying, ‘This is a real thing, we’ve seen it happen.’’

AJ then replied saying that, as his girlfriend is also a dancer, she understands the commitment that goes into the dancing.

‘My girlfriend Abi is a dancer too,’ she said, ‘she understands the long hours… she’s not worried at all.’