<\/p>
John Whaite\u00a0and\u00a0Johannes Radebe have undoubtedly been one of the top couples on this year\u2019s Strictly Come Dancing<\/a> so far \u2013 delighting the judges and viewers alike with several dazzling routines and regularly sitting near the top of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n They are also notable, of course, for being the first male same-sex partnership in the show\u2019s history \u2013 but former Bake Off champ Whaite has revealed that he could very easily have been paired with a different professional.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with Attitude magazine<\/a>, Whaite said that he initially requested to be partnered with a straight male dancer, in part because he was concerned about trolling on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI was honoured, of course, because not only had I wanted to do Strictly ever since I saw it when I was a little boy\u2026 but also, as soon as I found out, I felt a little bit anxious,\u201d he said about being approached for the series.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that it was an important thing to do, that it was hopefully going to change the way TV is, change the way that children feel when they watch TV \u2013 it\u2019s massive \u2013 but I was expecting to get a lot of hate, like [people] sliding into the DMs and saying, \u2018You\u2019re disgusting\u2019 and that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cAt first, I said, \u2018Can you put me with a straight partner?\u2019 because I [thought] that that would be the only way it would be accepted, and then, about a month before we were partnered up, I [thought], actually, I want it to be Johannes; it has to be Johannes, because it\u2019s such an important thing for both of us, it would be wrong for it to be anyone but Johannes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fear in my wanting to please people got in the way and let me say, \u2018Can you put me with a straight man?\u2019\u201d<\/p> \u201cThere was criticism and fear and negativity that we received when I danced with Graziano, complaints and stuff like that. I didn\u2019t want that again,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I remember thinking, what if it\u2019s successful? I realised that there\u2019s people who want to see it, that would love to see it more than what I\u2019m feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 04 November 2021 at 12:00 am John Whaite\u00a0and\u00a0Johannes Radebe have undoubtedly been one of the top couples on this year\u2019s Strictly Come Dancing so far \u2013 delighting the judges and viewers alike with several dazzling routines and regularly sitting near the top of the leaderboard. They are also notable, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6734,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/strictlys-john-whaite-on-why-he-initially-requested-straight-male-partner.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 04 November 2021 at 12:00 am John Whaite\u00a0and\u00a0Johannes Radebe have undoubtedly been one of the top couples on this year\u2019s Strictly Come Dancing so far \u2013 delighting the judges and viewers alike with several dazzling routines and regularly sitting near the top of the leaderboard. They are also notable, of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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