Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly announce they are leaving Strictly Come Dancing

By Lauren Del Fabbro, PA Entertainment Reporter

Strictly Come Dancing hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have announced they are leaving the BBC dance programme.

In a joint statement shared on Instagram on Thursday, the co-hosts, who have fronted the series together since 2014, said they would be leaving the show together at the end of the current series.

“We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream,” they said.

“We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.

“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show.

“They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day.

“We will cry when we say the last “keep dancing” but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”

Daly, 56, presented the series since it first launched in 2004 alongside the late Sir Bruce Forsyth, while Winkleman, 53, fronted its weekday companion show, It Takes Two.

The TV presenter eventually moved on to host the Sunday night results show alongside Daly and joined the main show every Saturday from 2014, after Sir Bruce stepped down.

The pair were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours for their services to broadcasting.