AJ Pritchard says it’s a "relief to finally quit" ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The 25-year-old professional dancer stepped down from the BBC Latin and ballroom dance competition earlier this week after spending four years on the show, and has now said he’s pleased to be walking away whilst he’s still at his "peak mental well-being", as he claims gruelling training left him with no "life".
He said: "I want to have my own brand and there were things I couldn’t do because of the Strictly brand and the time involved.
"It took up six months of my life, some days I would work 18-hour days because I was dancing and choreographing.
"I didn’t have a life and I wanted to be able to do more.
"I want to show people what I’m about – not just, ‘Here’s my celebrity partner this year that I’m going to showcase’.
"I did have to turn down things in the past, which I was upset about sometimes, but I understood I was part of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. Now I am going to pursue things I didn’t have the time for. It’s the right move.
"It’s a relief to finally quit. If I didn’t further my development now, while at my peak mental well-being, I would regret it."
AJ insists he "loved" working on ‘Strictly’, but wanted to quit before it got "too much" for him to cope with.
He added: "I’ve loved the series I’ve done but I wouldn’t want to do it again and again until I felt like it was too much for me. I would rather have great memories. If I do the same thing each year, that feels like I am sat on a shelf, and mentally that wouldn’t be wise.
"Some people may think I’m crazy leaving the biggest show on TV. I could have stuck with it for the rest of my working life, but it’s not what I wanted."
Now, the dancer plans on launching a presenting career with his brother and former ‘Love Island’ star Curtis Pritchard, 24, and says the pair want to be the next Ant and Dec.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: "We would love to be that presenting duo, like [Ant and Dec]. We want to bring our brand – that all-singing, all-dancing Saturday night style of family entertainment, a bit like Bruce Forsyth."
AJ Pritchard ‘relieved’ to have quit Strictly Come Dancing
