Strictly Come Dancing star Gorka Marquez revealed “big news” on Monday
Sara Baalla Screen Time TV Reporter
11:54, 24 Nov 2025
Strictly Come Dancing star Gorka Marquez has marked an exciting career first, saying, “I can’t believe it”.
The Spanish professional dancer and his partner Gemma Atkinson appeared on ITV’s This Morning on Monday (November 24), chatting with presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard about their podcast venture.
The presenters also paused to celebrate Gorka’s groundbreaking achievement, as he has become the first dancer to grace the front cover of Men’s Health magazine.
“We’re very excited to reveal some big news. Gorka is on the most recent edition of Men’s Health magazine. They don’t just let anyone on the cover,” Ben announced.
“He’s the first dancer on it ever,” Gemma chipped in, reports Wales Online.
Gorka Marquez has celebrated a huge career first(Image: ITV)READ MORE: BBC Strictly Come Dancing sign up huge 90s pop icon for Christmas specialREAD MORE: Strictly Come Dancing star ‘almost died’ in terrifying ordeal moments before Blackpool show
Ben continued: “It’s fantastic because a lot of people don’t realise how fit and strong you dancers are.”
Gorka then revealed: “I can’t believe it. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do it, to show everybody, of course, we are performers but we are also athletes.
“I said in the magazine, if you ask a footballer to play one football game every day, they wouldn’t be able to do it. When we go on tour, we do two shows of two hours every day and we struggle.
“It’s a lot of physical demand and I think the dancers need to consider them athletes, and the audience needs to treat us like athletes, because we are.”
Discussing Gorka’s preparation for the magazine photoshoot, Gemma remarked: “Because he is always on it, there was no build up really. That’s the annoying thing. I go from season to season, so right now it’s Christmas, like, ‘Yeah it’s fine’.
Gorka is the first dancer on the cover of Men’s Health(Image: ITV)
“Whereas, Gorka, it’s just part of your routine, isn’t it? So, nothing really changed.”
Earlier this year, Gorka revealed he wouldn’t be paired with a celebrity partner on this year’s Strictly due to scheduling conflicts with his judging commitments on the Spanish version of the programme.
“I am Happy to announce that I will be back for season two of BAILANDO CON LAS ESTRELLAS as a judge,” he had previously shared on Instagram.
“Due to the filming dates, this means that I won’t be competing with a partner this year in Strictly but I will be a part of lots of the group numbers and will be back for final weeks of the show to support the rest of my fellow pros and their celebrities in what is going to be an AMAZING SERIES.”
Elsewhere in their interview on today’s This Morning, Gemma revealed that she is rooting for Karen Carney and Carlos Gu to win the 2025 series, saying: “She’s come from no experience whatsoever, and she’s getting better and better.”
Strictly Come Dancing is available to stream on BBC iPlayer, while This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10am
