Katherine Ryan claims motherhood rules her out of Strictly Come Dancing
Katherine Ryan feels "prohibited" from taking part in Strictly Come Dancing because she is a mother and taking part would take up too much of her time.
Katherine Ryan feels "prohibited" from taking part in Strictly Come Dancing because she is a mother.
The 42-year-old comic - who has Violet, 17, from a previous relationship and Fred, four, Fenna, two, and seven-month-old Holland with partner Bobby Kootstra - admitted she has dismissed approaches from both the Latin and ballroom competition and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! because she thinks they would place too many demands on her time while her kids are young and expressed her frustration that famous dads don't feel the same restrictions.
She told Principle magazine: "I have not been explicitly offered Strictly or the jungle, but they have inquired a few times, and I just think it’s too far away for my kids and too much work.
“If I embarked on something like Strictly, you just don’t see your family, it’s so intense.
“So there are things I feel prohibited from doing as a mum, and it is difficult to contain the feminist rage I have sometimes that it’s not fair.
“I have this childlike voice of, ‘It’s not fair’. I see dads doing things, they’ll be in South Africa and I’m like, ‘Oh, you just had another baby? Oh yes.’
“Their bodies haven’t changed, they’re not breastfeeding, they’re not with their kids.
“They can just go anywhere and do anything and there’s a wife at home keeping it together."
Katherine admitted she has "traditional" views about parenting but worries her kids will grow up "weird" if she isn't present for them.
She added: “Even though Bobby is a stay-at-home dad, I still feel limited in what I can do when I have small children, but that’s a choice I made and I just have to wait.
“But this is why this is my breakout hot year, because I’ve been spending all this time turning down travel shows and commitments because of the kids.
“I do have some traditional views about parenting, and I just think if their mum’s not around, I’m sorry, I do think they’ll grow up to be, like, a Reform MP or something weird.”
Read the full interview with Katherine in the new issue of Principle magazine at https://principlemagazine.com/2026/05/28/katherine-ryan/
