Presenter Helen Skelton has admitted that she was so overcome by stage fright, she fled through a fire escape and was crying before her first Strictly performance.
Watching her spin across the dancefloor on Saturday, no one would've been able to guess what a bundle of nerves the Countryfile star was right before the show. Helen and professional dance partner, Gorka Márquez, went straight to the top of the leaderboard, after wowing the audience and judges alike.
However, the Radio 5 Live host said she was out of her comfort zone and broke down in tears before the performance. Gorka, 32, had to gently coax the mum-of-three back, the Mirror reports.
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While she insists she is “really enjoying” the Strictly experience, the 39-year-old said of Saturday’s debut on the BBC show: “I had a little cry. I’m normally cool, calm and collected. I got on the dance floor and they said, ‘When the audience come in...’ and I went, ‘Oh crikey, yeah, there’s people.
"I was like, ‘There’s a fire door, there, I can get out of it,’ and I did. And Gorka found me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Just having a minute.’ I literally ran. It was like when I did Celeb SAS, I tried to escape that."
She added: "I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it’s very weird. Personal space? You wave goodbye to that.
"Boundaries are non-existent. You walk in and they go, ‘Do you want a fake tan?’ Before you know it you’re naked with a load of people spraying you."
On Saturday, Helen and Gorka danced the American Smooth to You Send Me by Aretha Franklin, and were placed 6th on the leaderboard with a respectable score of 26. The pair got barely any criticism from the judges, despite the panel dishing out plenty to the dancers before them.
Bookies’ favourite Will Mellor and partner Nancy Xu topped the board. Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, 27, was photographed beaming on the way back to her hotel after her cha cha with dance partner Nikita Kuzmin.
Comedian Jayde Adams was also spotted. She had danced a rumba with Karen Hauer.
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