They spent six months dancing closely together but it’s commonplace for Strictly Come Dancing partners not to remain friends after the BBC show wraps, often they don’t speak again.

But when it comes to Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova, it appears to be the opposite.

Their close friendship was showcased last night at the TRIC Awards in London when the former Strictly partners, who danced themselves to the quarter finals in 2021, could not stop gushing over one another.

The 35-year-old Ukrainian dancer spoke to MailOnline and said: ‘Dan is a really busy man but we try and make time for each other as and when we can.

‘He has about 75 different jobs, I’m sure we won’t be seeing each other tonight as he is presenting, though we still have fun when we do see each other.’

Their friendship makes a change from other previous partners such as Amanda Abbington who accused Giovanni Pernice of verbal bullying, harrasment and physical aggression in 2023.

The next year, Zara McDermott's partner, Graziano Di Prima was discovered to have kicked her during rehearsals and was later axed from the BBC flagship show. 

But the Channel 5 presenter, 48, who has been married to Sarah for more than 24 years, did make time to go and see his former dance partner among the crowd of diners which included the likes of podcast hosts Pete Wicks and Sam Thompson.

The pair were together most of the night during breaks within the ceremony, taking selfies with other celebrities and chatting in a group.

One source said: ‘Wherever Dan moved, Nadiya would not be far behind. At one point she got up while still eating her dessert to go and join a group that he was in.’

Attendees at the event hosted at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on Tuesday said audiences were left ‘cringing’ with Dan’s constant references to the dancer during his presentation speech.

He opened the ceremony by saying ‘Have we got Nadiya in the house’ despite the room being filled with some of the biggest stars on television and radio including Rylan Clark and Angela Rippon.

Nadiya herself then took to the stage alongside her fellow Strictly star, Tasha Ghouri, to present an award before the charity auction started.

It was the dancer who made the first bid on a Michelin star dinner for two, which saw the news anchor, once again, call her out and thank her for starting the proceedings.

A source at the event said: ‘He must have said Nadiya's name lots of times!

‘We were all like, what is he doing? It was cringe and quite baffling.

‘When he was like, ‘We have Nadiya in the house’ everyone at my table was like, what is going on? It certainly raised a few eyebrows.

‘When he came off stage he then spent the whole time taking selfies with Nadiya and other celebrities. It was all very odd.'

More than four years on from the TV competition, Dan remains good friends with the Ukrainian dancer, and they regularly spend time in each other's company and share snaps of their outings on Instagram.

He met his wife Sarah at the University of Sheffield and says she prefers to stay out of the limelight, revealing in 2021: 'She doesn't want to be on social media. Simple as that. She's much wiser than me.'