'STRICTLY COME DANCING' FATHERS AND DADS-TO-BE THE SHOW'S DOTING PARENTS ON THEIR BELOVED CHILDREN

With Father’s Day fast approaching, members of Strictly Come Dancing’s dad club are no doubt looking forward to a fun weekend with their families.

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

Now that several of the show’s professional dancers – both past and present – have become proud parents, they share more than just fancy footwork in common.

And having found their feet as fathers, they are perfectly placed to offer advice to the dads-to-be who are hot on their heels and expecting little “Glitterbabies” of their own.

Anton Du Beke, now a judge on the BBC1 show, is dad to six-year-old twins George and Henrietta. “They’re the most gorgeous children in the whole wide world,” he told HELLO! recently. “Lovely, kind, loving, well-behaved, lovely, clever, brilliant children.”

Fatherhood is all the more precious to Anton, 56, because the twins are the result of gruelling IVF treatment, necessary as a result of wife Hannah suffering from endometriosis.

“I am absolutely loving every single second of it,” he told us. “I would have 100 children if we were younger, wealthier and had a big enough house. I love it more than anything. We love being a family and we love being together. That is the most important thing.

“I spent a long time being single and I love the intimacy of being married to Hannah and being with her and the babies. We have no interest in doing things without them. We want our lives to be shared – that’s why we had them. I’ve lived half a life without the children. I don’t want to live the second half without them.”

PRECIOUS GIFT