Ben Shephard says he’ll only sign up to Strictly if fee is high enough to pay for his divorce settlement

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Strictly Come Dancing fans have wanted to see Good Morning Britain’s Ben Shephard strut his stuff on the BBC series for a while.

But married Ben has now joked about the show’s infamous curse, saying he’d have to be paid an extremely high fee to take part because the money would need to cover his divorce settlement.

During a conversation with his GMB co-host Ranvir Singh on this morning’s episode of the show, last year’s contestant Ranvir revealed Strictly had been chasing Ben to take part in the competition “for years.”

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Ben, who tied the knot with wife Annie 17 years ago, replied: “We're having negotiations, we just need to get it up high enough so it's actually worth it.”

The 46 year old then laughed as he joked: “Well, obviously they've got to cover the divorce settlement!”

This comes after Tipping Point presenter Ben has previously revealed that Annie has banned him from signing up to Strictly because of the show’s so called curse.

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Speaking during an appearance on ITV’s Lorraine, the dad of two confessed: “I would love to do Strictly."

“As you know, I spent three years in university learning to dance. I have a degree in dance – it doesn't make me a good dancer, obviously.”

However he said Annie wasn’t so keen on the idea, continuing: "But my wife really doesn't want me to do Strictly, I have spoken about this publicly.”

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“She's not interested in me having an affair, which seems very narrow-minded and it could be a great opportunity, who knows what could happen?” he added.

However, Ranvir, who reached the semi-final stage of the competition last year with professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice, has come up with a loophole that means Ben could potentially join the Strictly line-up.

Speaking on GMB, she put it to him that he could form the show’s first all male partnership with the Italian dancer.

Mum of one Ranvir suggested: “Since Giovanni wants to do a male-and-male pairing, so… Ben. Annie might be more relaxed with you being on it.”

Later Strictly star Anton Du Beke, who appeared as a guest on the programme alongside Giovanni, also threw his weight behind the idea saying he’d love to dance with Ben.

“I’m desperate to dance with Ben Shephard,” Anton joked with the TV star. “I think we’d make a lovely couple.”

Good Morning Britain continues weekdays from 6am on ITV

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