Meet Bethany Antonia, the celeb with a same-sex partner on Strictly Come Dancing
Bethany Antonia is a Strictly star. (BBC)
Bethany Antonia is swapping Westeros for Strictly Come Dancing and delighting fans with a same-sex pairing. Here’s everything you need to know about the House of the Dragon star…
The 28-year-old joined Strictly with the request to dance with another woman. Her wish was granted: Antonia is partnered with professional dancer Nancy Xu.
Same-sex pairings have become a recurring part of Strictly’s modern era. Antonia and Xu are the third all-female same-sex pairing; they follow Nicola Adams and Katya Jones in 2020 and Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer in 2022.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Antonia shared that watching Adams and Jones in 2020 was eye-opening for her.
She explained: “It was a huge part of watching people in my family accept this beautiful show that we’d watched for years and years and years, and see this new way of the girls doing it together, and then being so accepting and exciting about it made me feel proud.”
“It was a thing that I talked into existence, so it feels like a real privilege.”
For the first week of Strictly, Antonia and Xu danced the Quickstep to “Stop This Flame” by Celeste.
They wowed the judges with Craig Revel Horwood declaring: “That’s the first bit of good dancing we’ve seen all night!”
The pair landed fourth on the leaderboard at the end of the night with an impressive 26 points for their debut.
What has Bethany Antonia starred in?
Before taking to the dance floor, Antonia is best known for playing Lady Baela Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones prequel.
She has also appeared in Doctors, Get Even and Doctor Who.
Antonia has also graced the stage. In 2022, she played Rach in Lava at Soho Theatre, a play by James Fritz. Earlier this year, she was cast in the role of Eurydice in the West End production of Hadestown.
Is Bethany Antonia LGBTQ+?
Antonia publicly shared that she was a lesbian in 2024.
Her first public statement on her sexuality came in response to a racist DM.
Antonia posted a screenshot of the message on her story, which read: “N-word, you look like a piece of s***. It’s a miracle they even included you in the trailer. But we don’t care. I hope you accidentally die on set.”
In response, she added a comment underneath the screenshot, along with the clown emoji, writing: “Wait till they find out I’m gay too…”
Speaking with Polyester about the incident, Antonia shared: “Everyone in my life has always known I’m gay.
“It’s just another part of my life that I’m equally proud of being a Black woman. So it was more of a hit back to say to the people, ‘Well, there’s another part of me that they’re going to hate.’”
Strictly Come Dancing continues on Saturday and Sunday evenings on BBC One.
