Strictly Come Dancing‘s John Whaite has admitted that he has such strong feelings for Johannes Radebe that he has had to spend time apart from his long-term partner.
The 34-year-old Bake Off champion admitted to cheating ahead of the release of his novel Dancing on Eggshells: Kitchen, Ballroom, and the Messy Inbetween.
In recent days, he’s been disclosing insights from the book, including that he’d developed affections for his Strictly partner Johannes, with whom he finished second on the dance series in 2021, losing out to Giovanni Pernice and Rose Ayling-Ellis.
He also admitted to straying on his long-term boyfriend Paul Atkins shortly after winning Bake Off in 2012, admitting he’d indulged in “drunken fondles and experimentation.”
However, in a newly released excerpt from the biography, John admits that following his intense feelings for Johannes, he needed to spend time apart from Paul.
He wrote: ‘After that final dance, I hung up my clothes for the last time. I felt a sense of loss.
‘Not because the competition was over, I was knackered and ready for a break, but because I wouldn’t get to see Johannes every single day.
‘I watched him as he sat on the window sill of the dressing room drinking a glass of champagne, still sparkling in his bright white show dance outfit.
‘I was jealous of the sweat beads as they shimmered on his beautiful skin. I wanted to be close to him… We hugged goodbye, I didn’t want to let go.’
John added, according to The Sun: ‘Johannes knew that [the curse] could happen. He had seen it a thousand times with his dance companions over the years.
‘When you are physically pressed against another man for ten hours a day, things move emotionally… He was being cautious. Strictly has a magical way of revealing the truth.’
He went on: ‘For a while, Paul and I had to have some time apart. I felt like I didn’t know what I wanted from my existence any more.
‘Paul had moved back with his parents and I thought to myself “What the hell are you doing?” I was making that childhood premonition of growing old alone come true.
‘Fourteen years in a solid relationship with a man who loves me unconditionally, a man who would move the earth to make me feel safe and I was p***ing all over it.’
This comes after John said that his relationship with Paul had some ups and downs, telling The Times in a recent interview that he ‘tested limits’ of their relationship after Bake Off.
After being thrown into a world of “freebies, champagne hampers, meals out, and holidays as well as screen tests, red carpets, parties, and a six-figure book deal,” John admitted to cheating on his spouse.
In the same interview, John said that his relationship was strained nine years later after he ‘fell in love’ with Johannes, which resulted in some ‘time apart’ from his partner.
However, the pair later reunited, with John noting how Paul had “nurtured and stood with me.”
Following the publication of these tales, John advised readers to wait until the book was out to obtain the complete narrative, breaking his social media silence to write: ‘Context is everything.’
He later sent a defiant message on Instagram, alongside a picture of him and Paul admiring the great outdoors: ‘Thanks for all the lovely messages over the past few days. We’ve been so busy cleaning our cookery school (exciting times – see link in bio for more details!)
‘But also, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that Strictly Come Dancing is only a tiny portion of the contents of my forthcoming memoir.
‘The book mostly describes what it is to be a human, and how with the love and support of others, we can pull ourselves out of some very dark places.
‘It’s a story of hope and redemption, and not inane gossip.’
Just days later, John wrote on Instagram, as his book reached publication day: ‘PUBLICATION DAY. My memoir, Dancing on Eggshells: Kitchen, ballroom and the messy inbetween is out today.
‘There have been a lot of headlines recently about some of the contents of the book. Some of which have been a little out-of-context or inaccurate (I’m not admonishing the journalists – they’re just doing their job – we’ve all got bills to pay and mouths to feed), but the essence of those stories make up just a tiny portion of this book, because there is far more to my 12,511 days on this marbled bowling ball than spatulas, sparkles and spats.
‘This book talks about what it is to be human – the joy and the pain, the fizz and the dirt, and as @russelltdavies63 so beautifully said, the glitter and the grit.
‘My biggest hope, is that when you read it, there’ll be a little something that is relevant to your life, and that it might give you a little reassurance that it’s ok to be a messy, flawed human.
‘Thanks to those who have read it and sent the loveliest messages.’
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One later this year.
