Kevin Clifton denies Strictly Come Dancing quit rumours: "I'm not going anywhere"
The Strictly Come Dancing professional says he has no plans to leave the show after partnering Stacey Dooley this year
Kevin Clifton has shot down rumours that he's quitting Strictly Come Dancing, telling fans: "I'm not going anywhere."
Reports had claimed that pro dancer Kevin was considering quitting the hit BBC show allegedly over tension with estranged wife Karen, and that he was eying up a career in theatre like his sister Joanne Clifton.
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But Kevin, also known to his fans as "King Kev" or "Kevin from Grimsby", is having absolutely none of it.
"Wow, reports of me quitting Strictly today are the first I've heard of it," he tweeted. "I'm not going anywhere as long as they still want me."
The dancer, who has made it through to the Strictly 2018 final with celebrity partner Stacey Dooley, continued to state that he had no plans to leave the BBC1 show, saying , "I'm not going anywhere as long as they still want me".
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Kevin has been a professional dancer on Strictly since joining the show 2013, with partners including Susanna Reid, Frankie Bridge, Kellie Bright, Louise Redknapp and Susan Calman.
This year, the Glitterball trophy is in his sights as he and celeb partner Stacey Dooley will dance in Saturday night's grand final.
Earlier this year Kevin confirmed he had split from his wife Karen Clifton, a fellow professional dancer on the show.
Kevin told RadioTimes.com earlier this year that part of the reason why he and Karen chose to confirm their split publicly was as a result of tabloid speculation surrounding their relationship.
“For us, we’d never been in that position tabloid-wise with everything that was being written,” he said. “It had all been usually just nice enough stuff about ‘that one did a good dance on Strictly’, or something. That was about as far as it went for us, and we’d never really experienced paparazzi hanging outside of our house.
“I guess that’s one of the many reasons why we went, ‘Look, this is what’s happened and this is the truth’, just to stop everybody writing loads of stuff,” he added. “Because there was a lot of things being written – and a lot of it was nonsense.”
Kevin's younger sister Joanne Clifton was also a Strictly pro dancer, but left the show to pursue her stage career. She has since starred in productions including Thoroughly Modern Millie and Flashdance the Musical.
The Strictly Come Dancing 2018 final will air on Saturday 15th December at 6.30pm on BBC1
