Debbie McGee has got her "sparkle" back.
The 59-year-old star admitted she has struggled to get out of bed in the mornings since her husband Paul Daniels died from a brain tumour in March 2016, but that’s all changed since she started competing on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ this year.
She said: "[‘Strictly’] has brought my sparkle back.
"I’ve always been a person who gets up happy in the morning and if I ever get up feeling down, I’ve always been able to bounce myself out of it.
"But since Paul died, I’ve really had to fight in the mornings.
"It’s getting up and having another day without him.
"When you go through grief, you have days that really are black days because you just miss them so much. But with ‘Strictly’, I’ve got up happy every morning and looked forward to going to rehearsals."
And Debbie thinks her late husband has been "smiling down" on her throughout the competition – though if he was still here, he wouldn’t be afraid to give her some constructive criticism.
She told OK! magazine: "He would just love it. He always wanted me to do ‘Strictly’. He’s definitely smiling down on me.
"Some weeks when I’ve been really nervous, before I go on I think, ‘Come on, give me some of your confidence, Paul. He would be so proud of me…
"[He would have been in the audience and] giving me notes at the end. Because he really knew about performing, he would encourage me and say, ‘If you do this, then you’ll make that look better.’
"I’ve had a radio show for 10 years and Paul would always listen in then when I’d get home he would say, ‘Great show today darling, but…’ And he would always do that to himself – Paul was never happy with his performance. He always wanted to improve."
Debbie McGee has ‘sparkle’ back
