Amy Dowden’s Strictly Come Dancing partner moves in with her after devastating setback

Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has invited Carlos Gu to officially move in with her, after spending the last two festive periods together.

The professional dancers are in preparation for their upcoming UK tour Reborn following the recent end of Strictly 2024.

With their busy schedule ahead, Amy, 34, has brought in builders to transform one of the rooms at her home in the Midlands into Carlos' bedroom.

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The dancer shared the update in a new interview, in which she also discussed her Strictly setback and why she and Carlos had decided to team up for a show.

"Carlos is the perfect height for me,” she told The Guardian. “Same height as my husband, who was my dance partner. It is important.”

Explaining the personal reasons behind the title of their tour, Amy said she felt "reborn" following her treatment for stage three breast cancer.

In February, tests showed she had "no evidence of disease" and the Welsh star has since returned to dancing.

She explained: "We both feel reborn. Me after my cancer journey and him after moving to the UK and finally being able to – he feels – be true to himself.

"Being gay, he’s accepted in the UK, and here he can wear the clothes he wants, be the Carlos Gu that he had been holding back. We’ve both got a strong story to tell."

Carlos is no stranger in Amy's home, having spent the last two festive periods with her and her family. Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester recently, he said Christmas in the UK had been the "best" he's had so far.

"In China, we don't really spend Christmas,"(sic) the 32-year-old shared. "In the past three years, I wasn't really spending because I didn't really understand how Christmas [is] like here.

"But then Amy invited me last year, I said 'definitely' and then the family - we spent five days together. And her mum, her dad and her sister, it's just like family to me. We were playing the games, it was like a proper, best Christmas I ever had."

Christmas was no doubt the pick-me-up each of them needed following last year's series of Strictly.

For the first time in two years, Carlos found himself without a dance partner, while Amy's time with JB Gill was cut short due to her collapsing backstage following an injury in week six.

In her absence, Lauren Oakley stepped in to train the JLS star and together, they made it to the final.

Amy says withdrawing from the competition left her "devastated" and while the decision was not hers, she understood why it needed to happen.

Feeling more positive about the year ahead, she added: "Dance is my happy place. And hopefully Strictly will have me back next year.

"After having to pull out this year, I still haven’t had that year of being back dancing and feeling truly like Amy again.”