Danny Cipriani says Strictly's Jowita Przystal is 'so nice to be around'

19 December 2023 , 19:11

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Danny Cipriani and Jowita Przystal have been paired up on Strictly's Christmas special (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)

Danny Cipriani has praised Strictly partner Jowita Przystal as he branded her an "absolute genius".

The former rugby player is taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Day special and has revealed he feels "privileged" to get the opportunity to learn a dance with Jowita. He said: "I feel absolutely privileged that I get the opportunity to learn a dance with professional dancers who are experts in their role, and I get coached by them, to get to a level where I feel happy enough to go out and perform it to an audience. It’s been an amazing experience."

Praising the ballroom and latin dancer, Danny, who split from his estranged wife Victoria earlier this year, said: "It’s been a whirlwind of an experience. It’s a blessing and to step into Jowita’s world, and for her to teach me some special moves, but also the humility and the grace that she works under, it’s the essence of who she is, while being an absolute genius at what she does, it’s so nice to be around. She’s world class, but so humble."

Danny and Jowita will perform together on Christmas Day (Instagram)

Danny and Jowita praised each other

Jowita, who won the series in 2022 with Countryfile cameraman Hamza Yasssin, admitted the feeling is mutual as she revealed Danny is the perfect student. She said: "Danny understands my crazy. I just met him and said, 'Right, this is the lift, this is the step, this is the trick' and he just looked at me and was like ‘Ok, cool, let’s do it.’ There was no hesitation, no ‘Wait what do you mean I am going to jump up on your shoulder, what do you mean I’m going to spin 70,000 times on the spot, and then I’m up-side down?’ There was none of that."

Danny revealed he wouldn't have signed up to the Strictly Christmas special "years ago" as he explained why 2023 was the perfect time to give dancing a try. He said: "It was something that I definitely wouldn’t have done years ago. But I was with my friend and they said, ‘You have to do it, you love to dance’. I felt it in my chest that it was the right thing to do, so I committed to that and felt like I wanted to do it, so I said yes."

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Danny and his estranged wife Victoria called time on their relationship earlier this month, after a series of "difficult" rows over text messages. He was partnered with Jowita on Strictly nine days later.

The former rugby star will take to the dance floor alongside a host of other celebrities including Dan Snow, Sally Nugent, Jamie Borthwick, Keisha Bunchanan and Tillie Amartey. Nadiya Bychkova is paired with Dan, Graziano Di Prima with Sally, Nancy Xu with Jamie, Neil Jones with Tillie, and Gorka Marquez will perform with Keisha.

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Charlotte McIntyre