Joe Sugg has shared that his beloved girlfriend Dianne Buswell was not his initial choice as a dance partner on .

YouTube sensation Joe Sugg joined his partner, the professional dancer and recent champion of Strictly Come Dancing, Dianne Buswell, on Loose Women today to discuss their ventures post-victory.

The duo also chatted about Buswell's BAFTA-winning performance alongside blind comedian Chris McCausland, who won Strictly 2024, reflecting upon their own stint on the esteemed competition.

Although they did not clinch victory during their 2018 series, finishing as runners-up to Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton, Joe and Dianne's romance blossomed not long after their Strictly experience, despite Dianne not being Joe's top choice at the outset.

During an appearance on the ITV chat show, presenter and comic Judi Love enquired whether Joe had any preconceptions about whom he might pair up with, prompting Dianne to tease: "Yeah there was. He tells me all the time he didn't want me!"

Joe then divulged: "I did my audition with Janette [Manrara] and I had watched bits of the show before and I had my audition with Janette and I was like 'OK, I want Janette, I want Janette as my partner now.'

"So I remember me and Janette both sort of said 'look, can we dance with each other?' and they were like 'maybe' and it never happened.

"In a way, it's good that it didn't, because otherwise we wouldn't be sat here today", eliciting a warm reaction from the panel.

Janette Manrara graced the Strictly dance floor for eight series before departing in 2021 to present the companion programme It Takes Two alongside Fleur East.

The 33-year-old also confessed that prior to his stint on Strictly, he was not adept at dancing and needed to "focus" before even considering entering a relationship.

"I needed the time to focus on getting to that final, it's quite a while ago now so it's hard to remember but we were proper focussed on the dancing," he recalled.

"It wasn't until afterwards we were like 'I kind of miss being in your company' and being around each other."

Loose Women continues weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV and ITVX.