Pasha Kovalev has said he is "fortunate" the pandemic allowed him to spend "precious time" with his baby daughter while he has been unable to perform in front of an audience.
The professional dancer and former Strictly Come Dancing star's wife Rachel Riley, who is the numbers expert on Countdown, gave birth to their daughter Maven in 2019 and is expecting a second child.
Kovalev, 41, said: "I always love to perform and being on stage is one of those things for me personally that I look forward to and enjoy a lot and not being able to do it was of course a little bit sad and a little bit tolling on your mind and spirit.
"But at the same time, there's nothing you can do and you just have to keep going forward and I was fortunate also to have a little distraction in my life.
"My baby girl, she was born at the end of 2019 so all my focus went on taking care of her throughout both lockdowns, I guess, and spending a lot of time with my family and watching my girl grow was an absolutely incredible chance that I would never, ever in a million years get if I would have to work.
"Because once I start working, it's long days and a lot of times you have to be travelling and be somewhere else and I would have missed so much from that precious time when my baby just started growing."
