Helen Skelton has bounced back from a tough year in her personal life and losing out in the Strictly Come Dancing final, by 'winning' the show's live tour alongside Kai Widdrington.
It was well documented before former Blue Peter star Helen signed up to do Strictly that she'd been put through the mill thanks to the breakdown of her marriage to rugby player Richie Myler and then having to watch him very publicly move on with another woman. Helen was the final star to be confirmed as a contestant for the BBC show last year and, in her first few weeks of ballroom life was plagued by a crippling lack of self confidence.
Helen even had to be calked back into the rehearsal room by pro partner Gorka Marquez at one point, having fled through a fire exit. The turning point for Helen came as she and Gorka wowed with their Blue Peter themed Charleston for Strictly's BBC 100th birthday special and, from then on, as Helen gained in confidence, they were regulars at the top of the leaderboard and, having never fallen into the dreaded dance-off, made it all the way to the final.
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They ended up being beaten to the coveted Glitterball trophy by Hamza and Jowita, with Helen then being dealt a blow when Gorka, who spoke out in support of Helen, eluding to what she'd been through on numerous times on camera, turned down the opportunity to do the Strictly live tour.
Fellow pro Kai was called into replace Gorka and his partnership with Helen has been delighting packed audiences all around the UK over the last month. The result of each show on the tour is determined by an audience vote and, having won the most shows, Helen and Kai were declared tour champions as it wrapped up in Glasgow on Sunday evening.
Helen and Kai won 13 shows on the Strictly live tour; including all three in Newcastle; ahead of Will Mellor and Nancy Xu on 8 and Hamza and Jowita on 7. The only other couple to win at all were Fleur and Vito, triumphing in four shows in London.
Helen made two posts about the Strictly tour on her Instagram, firstly sharing a video slideshow which she captioned 'thanks for the memories' and then uploading a cast photo, which next to, she wrote: "oh what fun we had. Over and out!"
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