Motsi Mabuse has admitted there isn't any friendship between her and her fellow Strictly Come Dancing judges.
The dancer - who sits on the judging panel of the BBC One show alongside Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and new permanent judge Anton du Beke - has confessed there isn't a friendship and just a working relationship between her and her fellow judges. Motsi has been on the panel since 2019 and she also appears as a judge on the German version, Let's Dance.
However, Motsi insists the relationship is different between her co-judges there and the ones on the UK show, as she opened up about the "pressures" of filming Strictly. She admits that after filming is done "everybody just wants to go home".
Asked if they are friends and all spend time together after work, she said: "No. None of that. There are some moments where you write 'Happy birthday' or something like that. In Germany, we’ve had the same judges for 10 years and there’s a basis of friendship."
"In the UK, it’s different," she added, as she explained their relationship as "professional".
Motsi admitted there is a lot of "pressure" on set, because they're all taking part in a primetime show.
"There’s so much pressure - it’s prime time, so you get in, you do the job and everybody just wants to go home," she explained to The Telegraph about the group of four and how they all work together ahead of the show's expected launch next weekend.
It comes after Motsi teased the upcoming series would be the best and biggest of them all, as the show marks its 20th anniversary this year with a whole new group of celebrities eager to show off their dancing skills.
Speaking recently, she said of the upcoming series: "It's going to be bigger and better, it’s exciting. We have the most fantastic professionals, I saw them rehearse, I can’t wait for everyone to see it.
"And everything is coming back, Blackpool is coming back, and some celebrations, so it’s going to be brilliant, I can’t wait – the audience is coming back, and I’ll see my judge friends."
However, she has no plans to leave the show like her sister Oti Mabuse, who stepped back as a professional dancer ahead of this year.
"I’ll be sad not to see her on Strictly this year," she said as she was asked about her future on the BBC show, "I’ll always worry about my sister, but I have to respect her decision and let her go. She’s proven that she can more than protect herself and push herself to new heights. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to fly the Mabuse flag on Strictly for as long as they want me."
