Strictly champ Kelvin Fletcher has told how family and friends were also winners at the bookies by betting on his victory when the odds were stacked against him.
The former Emmerdale star scooped the Glitterball in 2019 with dance partner Oti Mabuse after being a last-minute stand-in for injured Jamie Lang.
Kelvin said: “Although Ladbroke’s had me down as the favourite in the final, at the outset my win was so unlikely that a few of my friends had done very well by putting bets on me before the series began.
“My brother got odds of 16–1, which translated into a nice pay-out. One of my friends benefited from my win to the tune of £17,000.”
Kelvin has also revealed in a book that Strictly had rejected him three times before he finally joined.
And even then he nearly turned it down as his pride was hurting due to being only a stand-in.
But wife Liz persuaded him to take part. Kelvin said: “She knew me well enough to tell me to stop pouting and seize the opportunity.”
The actor, dad to Marnie, six, Milo, three, and Maximus and Mateusz, six months, played Andy Sugden in ITV ’s Emmerdale from 1996 to 2016.
Last year, the family starred in BBC programme Kelvin’s Big Farming Adventure, where they left their Manchester home for a country life in the Peak District.
In his book, Fletchers on the Farm, he tells of the moment he won Strictly.
Kelvin said: “It was totally surreal.
"I wasn’t even supposed to have been on the show.”
