appear on the hugely popular Strictly tour for the second year in a row<\/a>.<\/p>\nShe recently downplayed the snub by bosses and said how it was nice ‘being able to free up my schedule’.<\/p>\n
Nadiya explained: ‘You always want to be part of whatever Strictly is doing, but when it comes to the tours it doesn’t work every year.<\/p>\n
![\"Nadiya](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107018141-15631989-image-a-50_1773153328804.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nadiya Bychkova boasted about having ‘free time’ in her schedule after being snubbed from this year’s Strictly tour just days before she was completely axed from the show<\/p>\n
‘Chris [Robshaw] and I were out out quite early this season, so I didn’t get to go on tour with him.’<\/p>\n
She continued to Closer magazine: ‘But at the same time, it’s nice to take some time off and not be on the road. Strictly was full-on with so many things, like the group dance. It was intense since July, so being able to free up my schedule in January is nice.’<\/p>\n
Nadiya has not yet addressed her axing from Strictly Come Dancing, with the BBC yet to reveal this year’s official lineup.<\/p>\n
Daily Mail revealed that rumours she was pulled from the pro lineup due to her age are ‘well wide of the mark’.<\/p>\n
In fact, it is her\u00a0backstage tantrums and her friendship with Dan Walker, who competed with her in 2021, that is behind the decision not to renew her contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her diva-like outbursts behind-the-scenes infuriated co-stars, while her break-up with Kai Widdrington, 30, caused unwanted tension among the pros who found being in their company ‘awkward’.<\/p>\n
Their relationship, which last two years, did not go down well with bosses, who are at pains to include exes in the professionals’ line-up in order to retain harmony within the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An insider said: ‘Strictly is a light entertainment show, but it has to be competitive – otherwise it doesn’t work.<\/p>\n
‘Execs want the pros to treat the series like a sport and get the best results out of their partners, without going over the top and avoiding bullying scandals which have marred the show in recent years, of course.<\/p>\n
‘But Nadiya’s last three outings with a celebrity partner (also including Matt Goss) haven’t pulled up any trees – she hasn’t even made the top 10 with any of them.<\/p>\n
‘So in order to keep standards high, there’s hoping whoever fills Nadiya’s place on the line-up will achieve better results.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other pro dancers axed this year include Michelle Tsiakkas, 30, Luba Mushtuk, 36, and Gorka M\u00e1rquez, 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Daily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107018005-15631989-image-a-52_1773153356256.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Daily Mail revealed that rumours Nadiya was pulled from the pro lineup due to her age are ‘well wide of the mark’.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Daily Mail revealed that Karen Hauer – the longest serving professional female dancer since 2012 – has also been cut.<\/p>\n
Despite performing on the programme for 13 years, Karen was informed of the decision in recent days.<\/p>\n
Karen’s last celebrity partner on the series was Gladiator star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, while the year before she danced with former footballer Paul Merson and, in 2023, comedian Eddie Kadi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Daily Mail also revealed that desperate BBC bosses have secured Katya Jones’ place on the show<\/a> as they know how popular she is with viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Share or comment on this article:
\n Nadiya Bychkova boasted about having more ‘free time’ away from Strictly in an awkwardly timed interview days before she was axed from the BBC show’s lineup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have YOU got a story? Email tips@dailymail.co.uk\u00a0 By ALEX DOYLE – SENIOR SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER Published: 10:49 EDT, 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1578,539,93,61,60,155629,1489],"class_list":["post-339483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bbc","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nadiya-bychkova","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}