Johannes Radebe reveals how he deals with backstage Strictly dramas: 'I am there with the hot tea!'

Johannes Radebe can easily "walk away" from backstage dramas.

The 36-year-old dancer - who was born in South Africa and performed on cruise ships before finding TV stardom - has served as a professional on 'Strictly Come Dancing' since 2018 and when asked how he deals with backstage dramas, admitted that because of his background, he is able to let the "divas" get on with it whilst he focuses on the job in hand.

Speaking on the 'Table Manners' podcast, he told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware: "I'm there with my cup of tea. I'm there with a cup of hot, hot, hot tea. I always find it so interesting and I'm so observant. Thank God this came to me at a young age, having to deal with different people, and different personalities in different communities. When I eventually got my break and I was travelling the world with world-class dancers that had titles - British Championships, Italian Championships and here comes Johannes [with] the South African title...it's not even a world title. Fine.

"But I always understood that and I just always vowed to be the hardest-working one in the room.

"I've always been the first black one in everything I did, that was amazing so-to-speak. So the pressure of having to keep up has allowed me to firstly be kind to myself in that situation, step back a little bit, and let the divas do their thing.

"I always did what works for me to make space but ultimately put on the music and dance. If we get to the job of it, let's do the job because we can walk away from it afterwards. We can walk away from it after we are done with it. That always centred me, that I can walk away from it whenever it gets too much."

Meanwhile, to deal with the stresses of his career, Johannes - who competed with tennis legend Annabel Croft on last year's edition of the Latin and ballroom show - is a smoker but admitted he is trying to "wean" himself off the cigarettes at the moment and thanked his sister Jabu for always being there to keep in check when it comes to the habit.

Asked if he smokes more when he is doing 'Strictly', he said: "Yeah! Do you know that I'm weaning myself off it right now because I'm not stressed when I'm not working so much.

"It's a lot. And I thank goodness for where I come from because my sister pulled me to order every time I grow wings."