Kai Widdrington has begun rehearsals for the Strictly Come Dancing tour, having replaced one of his fellow pros to form a new couple for the nationwide event.
Having suffered heartache a year earlier, having reached the final with AJ Odudu in his first series on Strictly, only for her to withdraw due to injury; Kai suffered an early exit blow in 2022, when he and Loose Women star Kaye Adams were the first couple to get the boot from the BBC ballroom.
Strictly fans were delighted when Kai was announced on the line-up for the show's Christmas special and then claimed 'justice' was done, when he won that alongside Coronation Street star Alexandra Mardell. Before the festive episode aired on Christmas Day, Kai was also confirmed to be doing the Strictly tour, in a big partner twist that will see him dance with Helen Skelton, with Gorka Marquez playing no part.
READ MORE: Helen Skelton makes Gorka gesture before Strictly 'partner swap'
While gutted that Gorka won't be involved, fans are both excited and intrigued to see Kai and Helen in action together and Kai was seen in rehearsals on Tuesday as Tyler West shared footage from the dance studio on his Instagram story, before pro Dianne Buswell shared a group photo of many Strictly stars heading out for dinner after a long day of dancing.
Other pros seen in the latter photo, which Dianne captioned: "Promise we've been dancing," included Nikita Kuzmin, Carlos Gu and Vito Coppola, while Fleur was one of the celebs to join Tyler.
Kai was at the centre of a partner shake-up on last year's tour, when AJ didn't recover in time to take part and 2020 finalist Maisie Smith came into replace her.
Once he's completed the Strictly live tour, Kai will start preparing for another show, his tour alongside Strictly co-star and Nadiya Bychkova. The couple delighted their followers with the tour announcement in November and it will start in Portsmouth in March, just weeks after the Strictly tour ends.
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