Nikita From Strictly Come Dancing’s Relationship With Lauren Jaine

Nikita from Strictly Come Dancing is in a relationship with model Lauren Jaine for more than three years.

Nikita Kuzmin, the Kyiv-born dancer who joined the BBC show in 2021, is known for his fashion sense, his big personality and his history-making 2023 partnership with Layton Williams. He is much more private about his love life, but the broad outline is clear.

He and Lauren, who is 24 and signed to modelling agencies including Sandra Reynolds, started dating in June 2023. According to reports, the relationship surfaced publicly that autumn. Lauren was spotted in the audience at a live Strictly show in October 2023, while he was dancing his way up the leaderboard with Layton. Nikita first posted her on Instagram around the same time, and he marked their first anniversary the following year with a selfie. She later shared on TikTok that he asked her to be his girlfriend on their third date, which is exactly the kind of detail fans love.

The pair don’t overshare, but they do show up for each other. Lauren regularly posts about how proud she is of him, and in August 2024 the couple went on a romantic holiday to Croatia that made it onto her social media. Nikita has said he feels lucky to have a supportive family and girlfriend around him. Speaking about the intensity of a show like Strictly, he said she understands that it’s simply his job, which is useful when your working life involves spending weeks in close rehearsal with a celebrity partner.

That job has been busy. Nikita finished 2025 as a runner-up with Amber Davies, after being thrown into a new partnership when his original partner, Dani Dyer, fractured her ankle in rehearsals and had to withdraw. He said at the time he was heartbroken for her. Now the two are finally dancing together properly, as he’s been paired with Dani for the 2026 series. Naturally, that has set off the usual chatter online, but there’s nothing to suggest it’s anything other than a professional partnership, and nothing in recent reporting points to any change in his relationship with Lauren.

Nikita did have previous relationships before Lauren, which have been written about in the press, but he’s never made a habit of discussing exes, and it’s worth remembering that the dancers are people first and TV personalities second.

It’s also true that Strictly romances get plenty of speculation every year, so it’s worth treating unsourced “showmance” rumours with caution. In Nikita’s case, the story that has held up is the simple one: a long, stable relationship that he and Lauren have chosen to share in small doses, a smile in a rehearsal clip here, a proud caption there.