Oti Mabuse clarifies Strictly Come Dancing exit comments

Oti Mabuse has clarified her recent comments about leaving Strictly Come Dancing, saying that no decision has been made about her future.

The star said in April that the 2021 series of the show would likely be her last, but the two-time glitterball winner has now retracted her comments.

"I don’t know why I said that but I will take it a season at a time. I don’t know what came over me,’ the 30-year-old dancer told Metro.

She added: "The first thing that I have to say, this job that I have is one of the best jobs that I’ve ever had and Strictly for me is the most amazing experience of my life.

"It’s the professional dancers, it’s the celebrities, it’s the crew that we all feel like a family and every single year it just gets better and better."

Mabuse praised the "incredible people" who help make the show and said she gets to "work with my best friends" in being a part of the BBC's dance spectacular.

The speculation around her departure came in the wake of her signing on to join the judging panel of ITV's The Masked Dancer — a spin-off of the wildly popular The Masked Singer.

Mabuse said her role on that show will be a world away from her sister Motsi's gig as a judge on Strictly.

She added: "The thing about The Masked Dancer is the anticipation and the suspense, looking at the clues and trying to figure it out, the guessing, the assuming it’s this person that you love

"Sometimes, I feel like I’m going to be that person who just gets lost in the performance and I don’t have to critique them and just guess along with the rest of the nation."

In 2020, Mabuse became the first professional dancer to win successive series of Strictly Come Dancing, winning with comedian Bill Bailey 12 months after her previous triumph with Emmerdale actor Kelvin Fletcher.

Only one other Strictly pro has won twice, with Aliona Vilani lifting the glitterball as the partner of McFly drummer Harry Judd and The Wanted singer Jay McGuiness.

Mabuse will be joined in the 2021 series by numerous other returning professionals, including Karen Hauer, Giovanni Pernice, Johannes Radebe, Dianne Buswell, Gorka Marquez and Janette Manrara.

Pernice has hinted that he would love to be partnered with a man on the show, after Katya Jones and boxer Nicola Adams became the first same-sex couple in 2020.