Josh Widdicombe announces his kitten Fluffball has died in hit and run on his road - just two weeks after the death of his cat Beryl

4 weeks ago 16

By CIARA FARMER, ASSISTANT SHOWBUSINESS EDITOR

Published: 15:22 BST, 10 September 2026 | Updated: 15:32 BST, 10 September 2026

Josh Widdicombe has announced his nine-month-old kitten Fluffball has passed away, just weeks after the death of his cat Beryl aged 11. 

The new Strictly Come Dancing host, 43, spoke on his Parenting Hell podcast, which he hosts alongside Rob Beckett, about Fluffball's death and the impact on his family - including wife Rose Hanson and their daughter, eight, and son, four.

Having said in last week's episode he was too sad to discuss her death, on Tuesday's episode of the show he announced she had been hit by a car. 

He said: 'I can't deal with this but let's just knock it out. We are down to one cat. Fluffball got hit by a car on our road when we were in Cornwall. She was found by my neighbour. Grim. Two weeks after Beryl died... 

'Absolutely f**king awful times. I just can't. I just can't engage, talk about it anymore.'

Can I give a shout out to the lovely man Nick from Moorview Pet Cremation... He's so nice. The vet set us up with him the first time. Second time I rung him up direct'. 

Josh Widdicombe has announced his nine-month-old kitten Fluffball has passed away, just weeks after the death of his cat Beryl aged 11

Following Beryl's death last month, he took to Instagram to announce the news, writing: 'Our beautiful cat Beryl passed away last week, absolutely heartbroken 

Following Beryl's death last month, he took to Instagram to announce the news, writing: 'Our beautiful cat Beryl passed away last week, absolutely heartbroken.

'When we got her and Eddie 11 years ago I was a huge cat sceptic, now she has created a life long problem for me, I get far too emotionally attached to them and would happily have 10 (Rose won’t let me)....

'Beryl was an affectionate, chilled and beautiful matriarch. A cat that would somehow always know if you were down and come to see you to make you feel better. Sadly today we don’t have her around to do that...

'I heavily considered not posting this due to my innate feeling that social media mourning is weird (particularly as I know some people will think it’s just a cat)...

'But I found myself repeatedly having to tell people I saw in the last that I was upset when they asked how my day/week/summer was so this seemed a way to hopefully stem that odd chat...

'RIP Beryl, with your kidney problems you really took the cat insurance to the cleaners.'

Following Fluffball's death, Josh and his fellow Strictly presenters Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe spoke about the upcoming series and revealed there are more massive shake ups in store for the show.

Having said in last week's episode he was too sad to dicuss her death, on Tuesday's episode of the show he announced she had been hit by a car

Josh is pictured with his wife Rose Hanson in 2024

Following Fluffball's death, Josh and his fellow Strictly presenters Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe spoke about the upcoming series and revealed there are more massive shake ups in store for the show 

In their first major interview since they were unveiled as Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly's replacements on the BBC's flagship show, the hosts have explained how the new presenting format will work.

Explaining that having three presenters was a 'wild card' choice for producers, Emma, Josh and Strictly pro dancer Johannes have admitted the format is still 'very open' just weeks before the live shows are due to kick off.

'There's no like for like, so no one's kind of replacing anybody and at the minute it's all very kind of open,' Emma told The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.

'We're having lots of production days where we go in and we play around and we're kind of feeling each other out - well, they're feeling us out really.'

Josh added to podcast host Richard Osman: 'It's going to be like total football, Richard. We're going to be moving everywhere.'

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