‘Heartbroken’ Katya Jones reveals she nearly QUIT Strictly after she and associate Lewis Cope had been eradicated in final 12 months’s quarter finals

Katya Jones has revealed that she almost quit as a Strictly Come Dancing professional after being left ‘heartbroken’ by how last year’s series ended for her.

The dancer, 37, – who has been on the show since 2016 – was paired with actor Lewis Cope, 31, for the 2025 instalment, but they were eliminated in the quarter finals.

They just missed out on progressing to the semi-finals and potentially the final after facing Love Islander Amber Davies and pro Nikita Kuzmin in the dance-off.

Now Katya has admitted that she ‘wasn’t sure if she could face it again’ when considering if she wanted to stay for her 11th year as part of the show.

Her admission comes after a huge shake-up on the series as several longstanding pros including Karen Hauer, Gorka Marquez, Nadiya Bychkova, Luba Mushtuk were axed earlier this year.

In an exclusive interview, Katya has spoken about her decision to in fact stay, saying: ‘Well, it’s my 11th year and I’m still here! And look, I’m not going to lie, after certain amount of years, and only because I know I would not want to walk into this job without genuine passion and love for it because it’s not fair on our fans, it’s not fair on the celebrities and the experience that I’m supposed to be giving them. 

‘So every year I do question myself, like really think, ‘Are you ready for this really intense, really all consuming thing again and again and again and again?’ Every time I ask myself, and if the answer is still yes, I’ll be here doing it. And I must say last year I was very heartbroken. 

‘So there was a lot of doubt, like, £Can I face it again?”‘

She added: ‘I guess our expectation was so high and not even from us, externally, you kind of see yourself getting all the way there. And then to have had it cut short was a little bit tough.’

This year Katya is paired with football YouTuber John Nellis – which she says has given her a new lease of life and passion to continue with the show for now.

She said of her early training sessions with John: ‘As soon as we started, and especially after our first week, it just reminded me what a difference it makes, not just to him, to the whole nation. 

‘And it’s not about me, it’s not about you. I tried to explain that to you. It becomes not about us. It goes so much further beyond his purpose and strength. 

‘We are giving the nation something to look forward to and get through the winter. So it’s not about me. Get your little ego, shove it deep down there and give people a good time. 

‘I still love Strictly as much now as when I started. The moment I don’t love it is the moment I walk away.’

Katya has also had to stand up to a fair amount of scrutiny and trolling during her time on the show – with the most testing of times coming when she was seen kissing her celebrity partner Seann Walsh outside a pub in 2018.

At the time she was married to fellow Strictly professional Neil Jones, while Seann had a girlfriend. They both issued public apologies at the time.

On if public opinion and the often frenzied world of the internet ever get too much for her, she said: ‘We were talking about it earlier in some way or another. 

‘Obviously I’ve done it for so long now and I’ve learned how I deal with it. I think what’s really important is to let it happen next to you because you cannot control it. 

‘You cannot cancel it out. You let it happen alongside your life, but that’s not my life. That doesn’t define my life. So I always see it as a separate thing, a parallel world that’s happening next to me, but it’s not in my eyesight and it will never define me. 

‘But it was a long journey obviously getting there. But at the same time, the way I always operate is you can like me, you can dislike me, you can hate me, not hate me, you can have an opinion, but you can’t criticise my work if it’s good. 

‘So I just focus on my work and doing a really good job because you can dislike me, but you can’t say he did a bad dance or we didn’t get that product out that’s good. I let our dancing do the talking. 

‘So it becomes non-personal. I just focus on doing an amazing job that I absolutely love.’

Katya and John topped the leaderboard after the first live show – securing 31 points out of 40 for their Foxtrot.

Movie Week came next – with them slipping down the rankings a little – scoring 23 for their Titanic-inspired Couples Choice routine.

With week three coming up this Saturday – the pair will undoubtedly be looking to impress and progress as far as they can in the competition.