Rachel Riley reckons she’d rather swim with killer sharks than return to Strictly Come Dancing.(Image: PA)

Rachel Riley reckons she’d rather swim with killer sharks than return to Strictly Come Dancing. The Countdown queen, 39, met her husband, Pasha Kovalev, on the BBC dance show back in 2013, before welcoming their daughters, Maven, five, and Noa, three, into the world.

However, Rachel, who has signed up to ITV’s new reality show, Shark! Celebrity Infested Water, in which a team of plucky stars face their fears and swim with tiger sharks – without a cage – says there’s no way she’d strut her stuff on the dance floor again because it left her feeling ‘panic-stricken’.

Rachel Riley has signed up to ITV’s new reality show, Shark! Celebrity Infested Water,(Image: ITV)

Speaking about the prospect of slipping into sequins for the second time, she told Metro: “If you asked me tomorrow to go swimming with great whites, I’d be there. If you asked me to do Strictly again, no way.”

Admitting she felt ‘panicked’ on the BBC show, she continued: “The thing about Strictly is that the music comes on and we panic, whereas with the sharks you can take your time to get down. Rationally, you shouldn’t be more scared of something that can eat you than dancing on telly. But we’re not always rational, are we?”

Despite being in no rush to go back to Strictly, Rachel found love with professional dancer Pasha on the show, who she was partnered with during her time on Strictly Come Dancing.

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The couple got together in 2014, and surprised friends and family with a whirlwind Las Vegas wedding in 2019.

“So, we were never bothered about getting married, but then we just were like ‘shall we just get married’ once were were having the baby,” Rachel previously told the Express.

After Strictly, the maths whizz is now dipping her toe into a very different pool as she’s joined by a star-studded cast, which includes Sir Lenny Henry, comedian Ross Noble, and Amandaland’s Lucy Punch in Shark!, which starts tonight.

The gang are guided by leading shark experts, including Paul de Gelder – a former marine whose arm and leg were tragically ripped off by a bull shark in 2009 – but now devotes his life to protecting the species that almost killed him.

Proudly showing off his prosthetic limbs as he welcomes the gobsmacked celebrities onto the boat, he tells them they’ll be starting their journey in the water with bull sharks.

Admitting she’s thought she’d be eased in gently ‘in a swimming pool with starfish’, Rachel said: “I was expecting swimming pools with starfish to start with.

“Pasha and I’ve been to the Galapagos before, and we saw a bright orange thing in the water, thinking someone had dropped a life jacket, but it was actually a sea lion bitten in half trying to get out of the water.”