STEP BACK IN TIME - 'I'VE GOT ALL THESE STRONG WOMEN ROLE MODELS

STRICTLY DANCER KEVIN CLIFTON ON BEING A DAD TO HIS BABY DAUGHTER WITH STACEY DOOLEY, FINDING HIS CANADIAN ROOTS AND HIS ACTING AMBITIONS

- JEN PHARO

Ballroom dancing has given Kevin Clifton fame, fortune and even family thanks to his romance with Strictly Come Dancing partner Stacey Dooley – the couple’s baby girl Minnie was born in January this year.

But there was a time when Kevin rebelled against the strict nature of ballroom and posed as a “bad boy”, even dressing as a goth as he searched to find himself beyond the sequins.

So when he was offered the opportunity to take part in Who Do You Think You Are?, Kevin jumped at the chance to learn more about his identity and find a legacy he could one day share with his daughter.

“I’ve been interested in identity for a while,” explains Kevin, 40. “My mum and dad were dancers, me and my sister became dancers and that was our identity. We’re a dancing family, we go to competitions, we behave and dress in a certain way, you’re in front of an audience and judges… At some point I just rebelled against all of it.”

Kevin grew his hair, wore leather trousers and painted his fingernails black. “I was like, ‘You better get used to my leather trousers!’” he laughs. “It was just me trying to be something different. It was like this other identity.”

When Strictly came calling in 2013 he embraced his showbiz persona, but during the Covid pandemic and lockdown he relaxed long enough to realise all he wanted was a cup of tea, football on the telly and a family with partner Stacey Dooley.