Strictly Come Dancing pro Dianne Buswell has addressed the criticism she has received for continuing to dance in the 2025 series of the BBC show while pregnant with her first child
Strictly Come Dancing’s Dianne Buswell has clapped back at online critics with a succinct statement, declaring she’s “had enough”. The red-haired professional dancer, who is currently lighting up the 2025 series of the hit BBC show alongside Aussie actor Stefan Dennis, is the first pregnant woman to dance on the show.
Dianne and her celeb partner Stefan were noticeably absent from last weekend’s episode due to Stefan falling ill, which unfortunately led to them missing out on the Movie Week special. However, they returned this week to dance a charleston on Saturday (18 October).
They danced to Dance Monkey by Tones And I, earning high praise from some of the judges who hailed it as their best performance yet. Their routine earned them a score of 26 out of a possible 40, and fans were left in awe of Dianne’s agility, which included cartwheels and running down the Strictly staircase.
READ MORE: Emma Louise Connolly’s ‘beautifully made’ Boden trousers are ‘selling like hotcakes’READ MORE: Strictly fans all say the same thing as Little Mix star Leigh Anne wows on results show
But not all viewers were pleased, and Dianne took to Instagram to address some of the harsh criticism she received for dancing while expecting a baby. On her Instagram Stories, she shared a comment from a viewer that read: “I get so uncomfortable watching Dianne run down the stairs in heels, cartwheel and do tricks while pregnant.
“Your centre of gravity is off while you’re pregnant, just takes one slip to fall on the precious bump. She is a true professional and fabulous dancer but I think it might have been wise to sit this season out. She is 36 so classed as advanced maternal age mother regardless of how fit she is, I think BBC made a mistake here,” reports the Express.
They continued by noting that Amy Dowden also took part in the BBC competition last year whilst facing health issues, adding: “It just doesn’t make sense. Like it didn’t make sense to give Amy a celebrity partner last year and look what happened there.” Fed up, Dianne shared her own thoughts as she reposted the comment, writing: “I have honestly had enough of comments like these.”
Fortunately, the majority of fans were incredibly supportive of the dance star and offered words of encouragement rather than criticism.
One fan argued: “Literally it’s so annoying and I feel so bad she’s getting all these comments as if she would ever do anything that would harm the baby!
“It would be totally different if she wasn’t a professional dancer doing all this while pregnant, but her body is used to this.”
Another chimed in: “Didn’t Amy get an ankle injury last year? That can happen to anyone nothing to do with having had cancer! Dianne will know and decide for herself if and when she needs to slow down and cut back!”
Whilst a third said: “She’s pregnant not sick. I’m sure she has enough common sense to listen to her own body.”
The 36 year old professional dancer confirmed earlier this year that she and YouTuber Joe Sugg are expecting their first child together. Since then, her fans have been quick to question whether she should continue performing some of the show’s more challenging lifts.
Chatting with comedian Chris McCausland on his Winning Isn’t Everything podcast, Dianne clarified exactly what her doctor had advised her following her pregnancy announcement. She revealed: “Because we did quite a lot of lifts that were quite high impact – well, look, I’m still doing everything that I did before. Obviously, with lifts, there’s just going to be a bit more caution.
“But my doctor said that everything is normal. He said, basically, if you’ve done it before, like in terms of you’re a dancer, you’ve done lifts, you’ve done this, you’ve done that, then crack on and keep doing what you were doing.
“He said, because you’ve danced since you were five, literally, this is what your body’s meant to do. He said, you shouldn’t stop what you do. So obviously, with lifts, you just do it with caution.”
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.