SAD NEW: Strictly curse strikes again as star splits from long-term partner
Strictly Come Dancing will return to screens later this year, and months before its airing, the curse has struck again.
Strictly Come Dancing will return to screens later this year (Image: BBC)
Ahead of Strictly Come Dancing 2026, the newest professional, Maddie Ingoldsby, has announced her split from long-time dance partner, just months before making her BBC debut. The 21-year-old has confirmed that she and Mark Chilcote have officially and professionally parted ways after seven years together. In the emotional joint Instagram post, the dance champion shared a montage of them together, embracing after winning multiple titles, accompanied by Harry Styles’ 2017 tear-jerker, Sign of the Times.
In the lengthy caption, Maddie stated: “The final bow to the end of our partnership. After the most extraordinary seven years of our lives, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to bring our partnership to an end. Some endings don’t arrive because our passion has faded; they arrive because life asks us to grow in new directions.”
Reflecting on their journey, she continued: “Our partnership has been our greatest teacher and our greatest treasure.
“It has challenged us to find strength in one another, and opened up the world to us in ways we couldn’t have dreamed possible, performing on countless stages across twenty countries.
“Dance has been our language to express what words never could… We never danced to simply win. We danced to tell our story, and we hope that somewhere along the way, our story became a small part of yours.”
The joint statement listed some of their winning titles, including eight world championship titles and three major championships: Internationals, UK Open, and British Open.
Maddie and Mark were professional partners for seven years (Image: YouTube)
The post concluded: “Our story will live on in hearts and in memory, and with the end of one chapter, a new one awaits each of us. Mark is in search of a new dance partnership, while Maddie is putting a pause on her competitive dancing.”
This came just days after Maddie’s addition to the Strictly pro line-up was uncovered by The Sun, making her the second-youngest in the show’s history, after the 2004 premiere, which included Chloe Hewitt, then 20.
Born in Henley, Oxfordshire, the new pro has been competing since she was 11 with her Latin and ballroom partner, Mark, 26.
Maddie has graced the Strictly stage before when she was just 11, as part of a routine with the star-studded troupe on the BBC show.
This comes after a major shake-up in which beloved pros Karen Hauer, 44, Nadiya Bychkova and Luba Mushtuk, both 36, Gorka Marquez, 35, and Michelle Tsiakkas, 30, were brutally axed as part of a major overhaul of Strictly Come Dancing for the 2026 series.
