Krishnan Guru-Murthy finally signed up for 'Strictly Come Dancing' because he wanted to bring "a little joy" into his life.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy has revealed he joined Strictly to bring a little joy to his life
The 53-year-old Channel 4 newsreader has admitted he's been offered the chance to compete on the series many times but he's always turned it down, but he decided to take BBC bosses up on the offer this year after suffering through a very "grim period" in news.
He told reporters: "Something changed this year. It was kind of a feeling. The news has been through a very, very grim period. The pandemic, political chaos, the war in Ukraine and my life's been really, really serious, in quite an intense way.
"And I genuinely thought it would be great to have some pure joy in my life. And this is just fun and laughter, and joy and learning something new that kind of takes your mind totally away from everything else. You can't think at all, so you can't think about anything else when you're doing this."
He added: "They'd asked me so many times before and I'd said no. And I kind of suddenly thought ''you're an idiot, why aren't you doing this?''
It comes after Krishnan revealed he won't be able to train as hard as his fellow celebrities due to a genetic heart condition. The broadcaster has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which means he shouldn't allow his heart rate to rise too high, otherwise, he could "drop dead" like his two cousins.
He told The Mirror: "I even asked my cardiologist if I might drop dead live on BBC1. ‘No’, was his answer. But he couldn’t give me an absolute guarantee. I have to be careful of raising my heartbeat into the red zone; that final 15 per cent. I shouldn’t go there. It’s where people with my condition drop dead."
He added: "I can’t wait to start learning to dance, but I am slightly worried about my general decrepitude. I know I’m going to love it and have a brilliant time and just hope I’m not the only one enjoying my participation.”
The line-up for this year also includes Bobby Brazier, Layton Williams, Angela Rippon, and Amanda Abbington.
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