'It would have been nice to be considered': Fleur East reflects on missing out on Strictly Come Dancing presenting job
Fleur East has confessed that she was disappointed not to be considered as a potential presenter for Strictly Come Dancing when the BBC show was searching for replacements for Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
Fleur East admits that it "would have been nice to be considered" for a Strictly Come Dancing presenting role.
The 39-year-old star was seen as a potential candidate to take over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman when they left the BBC's Saturday night favourite last year and admits that it hurt somewhat when Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe were revealed as the new hosts.
Fleur, who took part in the 2022 series of Strictly before going on to present spin-off show It Takes Two from 2023 to 2025, told OK! magazine: "I've grown a very thick skin being in an industry for a long time and being used to rejection and things not going my way and not really being offered opportunities.
"The disappointment didn't even set in until I found out the job was assigned. I hadn't even entertained it in my mind. I hadn't even gone there. I was like, 'Yeah, whatever. That's not mine. As if.'
"And then as soon as it was like, 'Oh, no, it's definitely not mine', I was like, 'This is interesting.'
"It would have been nice to be considered. That was sort of my feeling. It was like, 'Oh, didn't even really get a shot at that.'"
Fleur refuses to feel resentment about her Strictly snub and would rather celebrate the success of others.
The former X Factor finalist said: "Everyone's got their little moment in the spotlight and that's sort of how it works.
"I don't really take anything too personally, to be honest. I like to clap for others because I know that my time will come around and I'd love that support as well when it's my time."
Meanwhile, Fleur is kept busy by looking after her daughter Nova, two, whom she has with her French fashion designer husband Marcel Badian-Robin, and explained that the toddler is being influenced by both of her parents.
The Hits Radio Breakfast Show presenter said: "She's always dressing up, always carrying every handbag of mine she can find and trying to wear my clothes. But she loves music and requests her playlists every morning.
"She's obsessed with an Afro Beats medley of nursery rhymes. It's the nursery rhymes my mother would have listened to growing up, and it's got a mixture of Ghanaian, Senegalese and French songs. She's definitely got eclectic taste."
