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When he steps on to the Strictly dance floor for the first time next weekend, John Whaite will make history as part of the show’s first all-male pairing.
But it seems the magnitude of the situation has already struck the former Bake Off winner.
In an emotional interview with the Daily Mail, Whaite said if he had seen two men dancing together on TV when he was younger, he would not have grown up with ‘shame’ and ‘confusion’ about his sexuality.
Since winning Bake Off, Whaite, from Chorley in Lancashire, has written cook books and has a cooking segment on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch
And despite his excitement about taking part, he admitted he is ‘worried’ about social media trolling and has already deleted his Twitter account.
Speaking about the same-sex dance partnership, Whaite, 32, said: ‘If I was a child and I’d seen that, I wouldn’t have grown up with so much shame about my sexuality or so much confusion.
'I wouldn’t have thought it was a question, I would have felt accepted from day one.
'I think Strictly now having same sex couples is such a great step forward in terms of diversity and inclusion and just a true representation of what the world is.’
Whaite, who won the third series of The Great British Bake Off in 2012, said that while he
