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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Tom Bryant

Strictly's Anton Du Beke tells young boys to stand up to bullies if they want to dance

Anton Du Beke urged young boys to defy bullies who pick on them for wanting to dance.

And the Strictly Come Dancing judge says his six-year-old twins, George and Henrietta, are already following in his footsteps.

Anton, 56, became a father for the first time in March 2017 with his wife Hannah, 46.

Asked what advice he would give to boys who get hassle from bullies for wanting to dance, he said: “Punch them in the face. I hate people who say things like that. It gets on my nerves. I hate it. Let them do what they want.”

Opening his 42-date tour An Audience with Anton Du Beke at Royal & Derngate theatre in Northampton, he admitted he would be “unemployed” if he wasn’t a dancer. He added: “I would have been hopeless at mostly everything else.”

The Strictly judge's own twins are already getting into dancing (Internet Unknown)
The star joked that Tess and Claudia should not be let near the dance floor (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

He added: “My children dance. I say, try everything apart from Morris dancing.” Anton, a former professional dancer on the BBC show, will return to the judging panel for the 21st series this year.

He said: “I do love the judging as I feel I can get more involved in the couple’s journeys rather than just my own brief one.”

But he doesn’t want to see hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman take to the floor, telling the audience: “They can barely do the stairs.”

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