Bethany Antonia says it’s the "biggest privilege" to be in same-sex pairing with Nancy Xu on Strictly

The pairings were revealed in a new format twist for the show, in which the celebrities and professional dancers found out who they were paired with live on the dance floor during three choreographed routines.

From Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola to Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin, plenty of fans have been overjoyed by the pairings – particularly that of Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu.

Bethany and Nancy will be the third all-female same-sex pairing on Strictly – the first since Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer in 2022 – something the House of the Dragon star describes as a "privilege".

In an exclusive interview with Radio Times, Bethany said: "It feels like the biggest privilege in the world. I have been quite open about this, but watching Nicola and Katya do this in 2020 was a huge part of my life.

"It was a huge part of watching people in my family accept this beautiful show that we'd watched for years and years and years, and see this new way of the girls doing it together, and then being so accepting and exciting about it made me feel proud."

Bethany explained that she had thought to herself if she ever gets to chance to appear on Strictly, "it has to be with a woman", adding: "And so now it just feels like I just can't believe that we're here and we're doing it. And it was a thing that I talked into existence, so it feels like a real privilege."

Bethany publicly came out as gay in 2024 after sharing a horrific message she received from a troll.

Posted on her Instagram story at the time (via Metro), a troll had sent her a racist message, to which Bethany screenshot and wrote: "Wait till they find out I'm gay too", with a clown face emoji.

"Everyone in my life has always known I’m gay," she told Polyester of the incident. "It’s just another part of my life that I’m equally proud of being a Black woman. So it was more of a hit back to say to the people, 'Well, there’s another part of me that they’re going to hate.'"

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And it'll be Bethany's mum cheering her on every weekend, as the actress told Radio Times "my mum has not spoken about anything else since March".

"Every time she goes into a shop, she tells the person behind the counter," she explained. "She called me the other day in the fish shop, and she was like, 'One sec bab. It's just my daughter. She's going to be on Strictly, so I'll get that.' And she's going to come every single week. She's made it very clear it's her and a plus one every week."

She continued: "So I think my mum, she's the most excited, and my best friend Anna, who we have watched the show together every every Saturday since I moved to London, and we've entered the ballot every year to try and get tickets, and never got tickets.

"And then this year I was like, 'Babe, we're going to Strictly!'"

Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday 26 September at 6:15pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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Authors

Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.