Thomas Skinner has insisted he doesn’t regret agreeing to star on Strictly Come Dancing despite recent scandals.
The 34-year-old has been at the centre of a media storm in recent weeks.
Most notably, he admitted to having an affair just a few weeks after getting married, and he walked out of a BBC press event for the dancing show after picking up a journalist’s phone.
Despite the increased media scrutiny, however, the former Apprentice contestant is adamant he made the right decision when he signed up to join the Strictly 2025 cast.
When asked if he would have said no to Strictly if he knew what would happen, Skinner told the Daily Mail: ‘Not really, though, if I could change my wife being upset, then I would.
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‘But she hasn’t stopped smiling since I started Strictly, and that’s why I know I made the right decision to do it.’
Skinner admitted that he had cheated on his wife, Sinead, in 2022 after meeting Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, 35, in a pub.
The mattress salesman said that the affair only lasted two weeks and that his wife forgave him for it after he confessed.
During the interview with The Mail, Skinner said that it wasn’t too difficult to hear his past mistakes dredged up, but that he felt ‘awful’ for his wife, who had to hear it all again.
‘We had already moved on from this,’ he explained.
‘I’m doing Strictly and I’m in the public eye now. My whole life has been dug up and regurgitated, and my poor wife has to read something that she has moved on from.
‘It took a long, long time for her to forgive me, and we have worked at it. I will never say I’m perfect, but it was hard seeing my wife relive all of this.
‘But she said that it wouldn’t break us, it wouldn’t ruin us. She told me that she loves me to pieces, and I love her.’
Skinner has been paired with professional dancer Amy Dowden, and the move has proven unpopular with fans.
After the launch show on September 20, Amy’s fans posted on social media demanding ‘justice for Amy’ and saying she ‘deserves better’.
Amy, however, has defended her partner, posting on Instagram that ‘Tom is working so hard and is loving learning to dance (more than he ever imagined). We are laughing a lot too!’
Dowden finished: Thanks for a great week, and I’m so looking forward to our Strictly journey ahead! Let’s do this.’
Strictly returns for its first live show of the current series at 6.55pm tonight on BBC One
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