Strictly’s Annabel Croft spills on ‘intimacy’ being ‘an issue’ on the show

Annabel Croft says goodbye to Strictly

Strictly Come Dancing star Annabel Croft has said she understood why intimacy could be an issue on the show due to its nature, but not for her. The tennis star competed in the BBC dance competition just months after her long-term husband Mel died aged 60 from a short battle with cancer.

After missing out on the show’s final, Annabel, reflected on her “fast-tracked” friendship with her professional dance partner Johannes Radebe, who she credits for helping her with her grief. Of their dancing journey, the 57-year-old recalled how Johannes pointed out what a “perfect partner” she was for him due to her size and shape.

“When we are in hold we just fit together, and he was always trying to get me to understand the idea that we would move together, as one,” she shared. “One of the things he’d say was, ‘It’s just you and me out there, and we will bring everyone to us. It is not us dancing for them. They will come to us’.”

With dancing so up-close with your partner on the show, Annabel admitted she understood why intimacy could be formed between a partnership, but not in her situation for two reasons. She told Mail Online: “I look on the body the way any athlete does. I’m fascinated by what it can do, and I’m not embarrassed about anything like that.”

Secondly, Johannes is gay “so there isn’t an issue there, although I can see why that sort of intimacy could be an issue”. Annabel went on to say she wished her husband could’ve met Johannes to see just how well they had bonded both on the dance floor and behind-the-scenes.

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“That’s a big regret, that they never got to meet, because they would have roared with laughter together,” she shared. Mel died just 16 weeks after he was diagnosed with colon cancer back in May.

The couple, who married in 1993, have three grown-up children together named Charlie, Amber and Lily. Announcing the news on social media at the time, she told fans the family were “completely heartbroken” by his death and asked for privacy as they grieved together.

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On the dance floor last month, she and Johannes left viewers in tears with their emotional couples’ choice routine dedicated to Mel. In a video ahead of performing, she was seen taking her dance partner to Richmond Park, where she and her husband used to regularly visit.

“We were supposed to have our 30th wedding anniversary this year and I never ever saw what’s happened coming”, she added in the VT. The pair then performed their heartfelt routine to Wings by Birdy which ended with Annabel blowing a kiss to Mel in the sky.

Head judge Shirley Ballas hailed their performance “divine” while Anton Du Beke said it was “perfect”. Collectively, the four judges scored them 35 out of 40 points for their efforts. The pair’s journey came to an end at the semi-final after a tense dance-off with Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell.

“He [Johannes] was really devastated, much more so than I was,” she added to the publication. “I thought we’d done amazingly well, way more than I ever anticipated, but he thought we could do it.” The pair returned to the show as part of a group dance last weekend to mark the end of the 2023 series, won by Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola.

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