Strictly pro Gorka Marquez rushed to his 2022 partner Helen Skelton‘s side ahead of her debut this weekend after the star ran away to cry backstage.
Some 15 famous faces graced the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom on Saturday (September 24) but not all of them felt up to it mentally.
Helen, 39, has since revealed that performance anxiety made her run away from the stage before Saturday night’s show.
Her dance partner Gorka Marquez eventually found the former Blue Peter presenter crying backstage and expressed his worry to her.
On BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday (September 25), Helen gave listeners an insight into the mini breakdown she encountered before Saturday’s first live show.
Strictly 2022: Helen Skelton bursts into tears
In her two-hour radio segment, Helen opened up about how her nerves escalated during dance practice.
“I had a little cry,” the presenter confessed. “I’m normally cool, calm and collected.”
Gorka found me and said: ‘What are you doing?
The star added: “I got on the dance floor and they said: ‘When the audience come in…’ and I went: ‘Oh, crikey, yeah, there’s people.’ I was like: ‘There’s a fire door, there. I can get out of it’ and I did.”
After fleeing through the fire escape, the stress of the moment caught up with Helen and she started to cry. Soon after, Gorka located her and expressed his concerns for the Countryfile presenter.
“Gorka found me and said: ‘What are you doing?'” Helen elaborated to her BBC Radio 5 Live listeners. “I said: ‘Just having a minute.’
This isn’t the first time Helen’s had cold feet while shooting reality television. She also told listeners that “it was like when I did Celeb SAS. I tried to escape that”.
The star competed in the 2020 series of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and placed joint third.
Helen Skelton wows Strictly judges despite nerves
Despite her performance anxiety, Helen ended up impressing the Strictly Come Dancing judges on Saturday night’s live show.
Helen and Gorka performed an American Smooth to a rendition of Aretha Franklin’s You Send Me.
After host Tess Daly took the pair to the judges’ table, Helen and Gorka discovered they’d scored an impressive 26 points from their first live dance together.
Helen then looked on with a cheery expression as the judges relayed their praises to her.
“Lovely energy and you do have elegance, my darling,” said Craig Revel Horwood.
Motsi Mabuse also expressed her admiration for the pair’s dancing.
She gushed: “What a start! I fell in love with your spine, the way you moved on the floor.”
Motsi then asked Helen to raise her eye level in future while she dances, as this would “control your balance”.
“You have a beautiful line,” Anton Du Beke added. “When you’re doing lifts your line is absolutely gorgeous. You have a lovely arch through the back and the back bends are all great.”
Anton then suggested to Helen that she should have more self-confidence when it comes to dancing. He told her: “All I can say to you is this: own it.”
Gorka sings Helen’s praises after live show
It wasn’t just the Strictly judges who praised the presenter for her first live routine. Dance partner Gorka took to social media soon after the show to congratulate Helen on her fantastic performance Saturday night.
In an Instagram post, Gorka wrote: “What a night!! Week one and I am already so proud of you @helenskelton. I know how hard you work but you made it look effortless. Bring on week two. A new dance and more coffee breaks.”
View this post on Instagram
Viewers also applauded Helen’s American Smooth performance.
Some took to Twitter to express how dazzled they were with the presenter’s dance.
One wrote: “Helen and Gorka definitely the dance of the night for me. That American Smooth was lush.”
Another user said: “Wow, Helen Skelton andGorka were fantastic! Might be the best dance of the night for me so far #Strictly.”
“Helen looks absolutely stunning & is definitely a contender with that performance!” a third user said.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC one next Saturday (October 1) at 6.30pm.
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