Strictly Come Dancing star Gorka Marquez has celebrated an exciting career first as he announced “big news”.

The Spanish professional dancer and his partner Gemma Atkinson were guests on ITV’s This Morning on Monday (November 24), where they chatted with hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard about their podcast.

During the show, the hosts took a moment to congratulate Gorka for becoming the first dancer to grace the cover of Men’s Health magazine.

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“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 chimed in, reports Wales Online.

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Ben continued: “It’s fantastic because a lot of people don’t realise how fit and strong you dancers are.”

Gorka then expressed: “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.

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“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 shoot, Gemma added: “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’.

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“Whereas, Gorka, it’s just part of your routine, isn’t it? So, nothing really changed.”

Earlier this year, Gorka revealed that he wouldn’t be paired with a celebrity partner on this year’s Strictly due to scheduling conflicts with his judging role on the Spanish version of the show.

“I am Happy to announce that I will be back for season two of BAILANDO CON LAS ESTRELLAS as a judge,” he 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.”