Dianne Buswell made Strictly Come Dancing history this year as the first dancer to take to the ballroom and compete whilst pregnant, and the show’s tribute to her pregnancy left fans in tears
Strictly Come Dancing gave a special tribute to Dianne Buswell‘s pregnancy during the live final. The dancer, who competed with fellow Aussie Stefan Dennis this year, was the first to compete on the show whilst pregnant.
During the final, the eliminated couples all took to the dancefloor again for a big group dance. When Dianne and Stefan performed their part of the routine, Strictly first paid tribute to Stefan’s legendary run on the TV show Neighbours by framing the couple as though they were in the title credits for the soap.
As the tribute continued, fans noticed another little tribute to Dianne’s pregnancy. The words that came up on the screen read: “Starring Stefan, Dianne and Bump!”
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This tribute left fans in tears. One took to X to say: “‘And Bump’ is the moment I burst out crying, oh my God I’m such a wreck.” Another said: “Dianne and bump I’m sobbing!!”
Others used the moment to come to the dancer’s defence. “Can we give Dianne her own little trophy because that girl deserves it and more. The amount of hate, criticism and judgment she’s received the whole series just because she showed everyone you can still live out your passions even if you’re pregnant. What a woman.”
Throughout her time on the series this year, Dianne has faced heaps of scrutiny for continuing to dance, with many worried about how the cartwheels and running up and down stairs would affect the baby. The criticism came despite Dianne getting assurances from a doctor that dancing would be safe for the baby.
Dianne herself had to take to social media to hit back at trolls who said they “can’t watch a pregnant girl dance”. She shared a clip to her Instagram where she did a cartwheel and wrote over the top: “For all those people saying they can’t watch a pregnant girl dance! I just can’t help it when I hear the beat.”
She also shared a post to her Stories where she shared how much she hated the comments. Over a screenshot of a comment that said they were “uncomfortable” watching Dianne dance and that they felt the BBC had “made a mistake” by letting an “advanced maternal age mother” dance, Dianne wrote: “I have honestly had enough of comments like these.”
These were not the only times Dianne had to defend herself. After Stefan Dennis exited the show following an injury, one fan said they thought it was a set up to “keep her and baby safe”. A frustrated Dianne shared a statement on Instagram.
“I sound like a broken record but I’m seeing a bit of this floating around again! I know people say ignore it but actually why should I,” she said on her Instagram stories.
“I will speak up… I would love nothing more than to keep dancing this week next week the week after that so so on and so forth. In fact I have more energy this year than I did this time last year.”
She added: “Please respect Stefan who is extremely gutted to not be able to dance and stop presuming this was a set up! because believe me we would if we could!”
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