Kevin Clifton on his decision to quit Strictly Come Dancing

The professional dancer is leaving the show after seven years.

Kevin recently announced that he would be leaving Strictly Come Dancing and will not be taking part in this year’s series. He exclusively joined hosts Eamonn Holmes OBE and Rochelle Humes on today’s This Morning to discuss his decision and plans for the future.

On his decision to leave Strictly, Kevin revealed: “I’m sort of always thinking, ‘When would be the right time to leave?’ and sort of pave the way for younger dancers coming through and I’ve done seven years on the show and felt that I’d achieved everything that I wanted to achieve.”

“Something came along that has been my inspiration since I was about 10 years old. Basically, when I was 10 I watched the film ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and I became obsessed with it and I said at the time as a 10 year old, ‘One day they’re going to put that on stage and I want to play Scott Hastings, the title character.’

“I just couldn’t turn it down,” said Kevin, revealing that he will be joining the ‘Strictly Ballroom’ stage show in the lead role this September.

Kevin added that he still has “so much love” for Strictly which he is “looking forward to watching as a fan.” He also dismissed the rumours that his girlfriend, Stacey Dooley, was behind his decision to leave the show.

“It’s always the woman’s fault, like I’m incapable of making a decision. I did talk about it with her and she said to me, ‘This has to be your decision. You can’t have anyone tell you what to do here. This is a big decision…’”

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV, STV and UTV.

Kevin lifted the glitterball trophy with Stacey Dooley in 2018.