Helen Skelton has shared the sweet daily gesture from her dance partner Gorka Marquez that keeps her motivated during Strictly Come Dancing each week. The Countryfile host and Spanish dancer are currently impressing the judges and viewers with their moves in the BBC One dance contest.
Last Saturday night, the pair were suited and booted as they performed a jive in the ballroom. Dressed in complementary black and white suits, with added Strictly sparkle, Helen and Groka received a score of 37 for their routine to Janelle Monae’s Tightrope. It left them joint-second in the leaderboard, just one point behind Hamza Yassin who topped the scoreboard in sparkling fashion with three perfect 10s across the board.
But it was Gorka, 34, who had viewers laughing and gaping in amazement at their TV screens as he pulled a cheeky move After their rip-roaring dance ended, the pair took their places with host Tess Daly and faced the judges. As they waited for Craig Revel-Horwood's critique Gorka swiveled around and struck a pose by jutting out his derriere.
But Craig declared that their performance had just fallen short of him reaching for his '10' top score paddle following a mistake right in front of him at the judges desk. "I was almost reaching for my 10 paddle," said Craig. "I was disappointed," he told them. "You still can do it, look," Gorka urged as he made the same pose. Then Helen cut-in with another shot at impressing the panel by performing a cartwheel in front of them across the studio floor.
However, Motsi Mabuse again singled Helen out for the final, which is still a few weeks away, and head judge Shirley Ballas told the other competitors that if they're doing a jive, it should be like Helen and Gorka's. And after their high scores and high praise, the dancing couple made it through to week eight in the BBC One dance contest on Sunday night.
They'll be back in the ballroom on Saturday (November 12) with a Salsa to 'Despacito' by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber. And ahead of being back on the dancefloor, Helen, 39, has shared the secret to maintaining a positive mindset when training each week.
Writing in her column for The Telegraph, the mum-of-three revealed: "Gorka brings me a coffee at the start of our training sessions and writes on the paper cup, 'You're brilliant, You’ve got this!', so I begin each day in the best possible frame of mind. We also eat a lot of pastries. Pastries help immeasurably."
It comes after Helen admitted to having found it "weird" to get close to Gorka, 34, at the beginning of Strictly but said it has gotten easier with time. At first, he was like, ‘It’s fine you can hold my hands,’ and I was like, ‘But I don’t really know you though, why would I hold your hands," she said on Virgin Radio.
She added: "All of that takes time to get used to doesn’t it," before Gorka joked: "You don’t have to complain, you know, you can be close to me - it could be worse!" And there friendship was shown on-screen when Gorka stood up for his celebrity partner. In emotional scenes last month, Gorka took time out to praise presenter Helen as he addressed the 'difficult time' she's been having.
While she was paying tribute to her parents, Gorka stepped in and asked: "Can I just say something?" He then turned to Helen and said: "I know you've have been having a difficult time and I know you've been ... you may feel like you're not beautiful or good enough or anything, but if you don't believe in yourself, I believe in you. Everybody here believes in you."
Cheers broke out from the fellow competitors on the BBC dance contest and Claudia added: "We all believe in you." Gorka then added: "It doesn't matter how many times I say it, or the judges say it, or anybody says it it's only you who is going to be the one who can make the change and the one who needs to believe in you, because you are an amazing woman, very inspirational."
He added: "An amazing mum and incredible dancer, so believe in you please." While the audience started applauding, and Gorka was widely praised on social media, Helen looked awkward. And in an interview with The Sun she was asked about her reaction to Gorka's speech. “What I love about Gorka is that he has my very best interests at heart, and we are genuinely very good friends,” she said.
“But sometimes, maybe, we need to talk about what he’s allowed to say publicly . . .“I was like, 'Oh God, where is he going with this?’ That’s why I jumped on the table, to shut him up!"
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