Strictly stars who fell in love on show praise ‘match made in heaven’ ahead of solo tour | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

Strictly stars Kai Widdrington and Nadiya Bychkova are off on their first tour together after falling in love on the BBC show. The professional dancers have described their romance as “magical” and a “blessing”.

English dancer and choreographer Kai, 27, was eliminated in last year’s series after a dance-off against Nadiya, 33, who is from Ukraine.

He was partnering Loose Women panellist Kaye Adams, while she was dancing with singer Matt Goss.

Tomorrow the couple kick off a 33-date Once Upon A Time tour.

Kai said: “For us it’s a match made in heaven because we are going on tour together as a couple and as professional partners.

“It feels perfect to us. We are just so excited. We know people loved seeing us dancing on Strictly.

“And now we’re doing a two-hour version of that with loads of different stuff you can’t even imagine us doing.”

The Southampton-born star added: “We’re going to give people a little peek behind the curtain into a personal and professional life.

“This is by far and away the best Strictly blessing I could ever have asked for.”

Nadiya, who shares a young daughter with her former partner, Slovenian footballer Matija Skarabot, is also looking forward to starting their national tour.

Speaking during rehearsals for the tour, which starts in Portsmouth tomorrow, the dancer from Luhansk said: “It’s a dream come true to be able to put on a show like this and bring a little bit of us to people who are there for us.

“It’s very special and I feel very privileged.”

Nadiya, a ballroom and Latin American champion, added: “We’re in a really good place. We love to dance together.”

Kai added: “We called it Once Upon A Time because it’s literally chapter one in our story together, so for us it’s a moment in time which we’re going to look back on and go ‘Oh my gosh we actually did that’.”