Entertainment
Sex symbol? No cha-cha-chance, says Strictly Come Dancing’s Helen Skelton-Tom Stichbury-Entertainment – Metro
Helen is competing against Hamza Yassin, Fleur East and Molly Rainford in the final.
Helen Skelton is celebrating a newfound confidence (Picture: Supplied)
Strictly Come Dancing’s Helen Skelton says she is a cha-cha-changed woman since taking part in the show.
‘I was having a chat with Claudia [Winkleman] about it one day, and it was like, not everybody can strut down the street in high heels and a dress. But yes, I think I’ve found confidence,’ Helen, 39, told Guilty Pleasures ahead of this weekend’s grand finale.
However, the former Blue Peter TV presenter laughed off suggestions that she has become a ‘sex symbol’ through her sizzling dance routines.
The mum of three separated from her rugby player husband Richie Myler earlier this year, shortly after welcoming their third child. He has since moved on with another woman.
Helen praised her professional partner Gorka Marquez for unleashing her sassier side in their performances, saying he was clever in that he ‘never made it about being sexy.’
She added: ‘It’s about being sassy and powerful and being in control. That’s a wonderful freeing thing for anybody, when they feel in control of their own selves and what they’re doing,’ she continued.
Helen struts her stuff in one of her sizzling dance routines (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy)
‘It’s about being confident in your own skin and who you are. The thing he kept saying to me in the beginning, which I didn’t get, was: “Just own it” – “I don’t know what you’re on about!” Now I get it. It’s been a wonderfully liberating thing to just be happy in your own skin.”
And by the sound of it Helen has been giving it some wellie by bringing her training to the set of the BBC’s Countryfile, which she has co-hosted since 2008.
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‘Gorka saw a picture of me in a massive coat, big thermal polo neck, and was like, “Ooh, you were walking like you did in the salsa there!” she laughed, adding: ‘I’ve been trying to persuade John Craven to do this show for years… he’s always been no, no, no.’
Helen will be hoping to say, ahem, hay to the Glitterball trophy when she competes against Hamza Yassin, Fleur East and Molly Rainford in the Strictly final, airing Saturday at 7.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
MORE : Strictly Come Dancing bosses remove pro dancers’ ice-themed routine after 3 boys die in lake tragedy
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