Rachel Riley issues damning Strictly Come Dancing verdict as she's quizzed on comeback

Rachel Riley has described her new reality TV show as being more 'real' than Strictly Come Dancing ever was. The Countdown star, 39, famously struck up a relationship with professional dancer Pasha Kovalev when she took part in the BBC competition in 2019, and they tied the knot six years later.

But now that she can be seen on Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters on ITV, she has issued a damning comment about the dancing competition because at least she knew what to expect with her new venture. It comes after Strictly's Anton Du Beke shared heartbreak over wife's 'cruel and inexplicable' diagnosis.

On Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, Rachel is seen alongside the likes of Amandaland star Lucy Punch, Call the Midwife actress Helen George and comedian Lenny Henry amongst a host of others as they jet off to the Bahamas to face their fears and confront the sea predators, all upon the 50th anniversary of the cinematic classic Jaws. And Rachel was keen to note that she would rather face the great whites than head back to the dancefloor.

During an appearance on Friday's Lorraine, stand-in host Christine Lampard said "You've said you'd rather swim with sharks than do Strictly again..." and Rachel replied: "This is kind of real, it's blue sky, blue sea, nature. You know what you're getting there. Strictly is just a whole level of other stuff. I'll take great whites over Strictly, for sure."

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Rachel, who shares Maven, five, and Noa, three, with Pasha, admitted that she couldn't bear the thought of telling her kids what she had signed up for because she didn't want them to have nightmares. Asked about her family's reaction, she said: "Pasha was jealous. My kids, they were two and four when I was doing it. I didn't want to scare them, I didn't want them to have dreams that I was being eaten by a shark. So I didn't tell them til I got there. And by the pool where we got our training, there were these Bull sharks, these scary, mean predators."

But in the end, Rachel had nothing to worry about as her children seemed to be somewhat impressed when she video-called them from location, as she explained: "So I showed them these massive beasts and they said 'Are you going swimming with them mummy?' So it made me realise that we don't have an in-built fear of sharks."

And for Rachel, who shot to fame when she replaced Carol Vorderman on Channel 4's Countdown, is even enjoying getting the chance to watch it all back, although she normally can't bear to watch herself on screen.

She said: "I normally can't watch anything that I've been on back, but I can't get enough of this programme. It just brings back all the memories and it was the experience of as lifetime, the stuff we got to see, being in a shark sanctuary which is the whole of the Bahamas, it was just the trip of a lifetime."

Rachel added: "It's not your typical reality TV where there's gratuitous tasks, it's not [about] winning. It's about learning about sharks and I was just intrigued and excited but Lucy [Punch] hated them.

"She learned to love them and we learned why they're so important to our oceans. 100 million sharks are being taken every year through fishing practices and all kinds of reasons.

"We need to preserve them. It's dispelling a lot of myths that things like Jaws brought about. They're not interested in is, we're not in their diet. Five or six people die every year from shark attacks, which if you compare it to, I think 500 die from elephants and we don't have that respect to preserve them."

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