Debbie McGee said joining Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 transformed her life following her husband’s death
(Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)Strictly Come Dancing 2017 contestant Debbie McGee has praised the series for helping her reshape her life after her husband, TV presenter and magician Paul Daniels, died.
The 63-year-old stunned viewers with her dancing skills on the show five years ago, and reached second place in the competition with her professional partner. Giovanni Pernice.
This accomplishment came a year after McGee’s husband. Daniels. died aged 77 in 2016, following a brain-tumour diagnosis. The pair had been married for 28 years.
A grieving McGee joined Strictly afterwards, which gave her a new lease on life.
She told Hello magazine: “I had the best partner in Giovanni, and I was back in showbusiness again.
“People knew who I was before, but I was still the magician’s assistant. Since Strictly, I’ve been Debbie McGee in my own right.”
After becoming a widow, McGee sought a grief counsellor, whom she said advised her to continue to build a life around her grief, rather than sit still, waiting for time to heal it.
“That’s how I feel. I had this amazing life with Paul, and going through all this stuff reminds me of everything we did,” the BBC Radio Berkshire presenter said.
“I led a princess life. Usually, if you’re in a double act, when one partner goes, the other one struggles. The strength of the two has gone.”
Six years after Daniels’s death, McGee announced on her podcast Spill the Tea with Debbie McGee last year that she is now ready to welcome someone into her life again.
She previously told The Mirror: “When Paul died, I felt completely lost. I didn’t know who I was any more or whether people would want to know me without Paul. But now I feel very comfortable with who I am. I’m much stronger.”
While McGee has made major steps in getting through her grief over her late husband, she still misses life with him.
“I still hear his voice and I don’t think I’ll ever lose that,” she continued.
McGee is determined, though, to continue to keep on moving forward.
She added: “I miss everything about him, but you’ve still got to live and decide, ‘do you want to live and be unhappy that they’ve gone or be happy that you had them?’ And mine is definitely the second one.
“In my head, I just think that, if I don’t meet anybody, I need to know I can be happy and that’s what I’ve got now. I’m back to my old self.”
