A former Strictly star has admitted they feel lucky to be alive after undergoing major surgery before pulling out of the BBC dance competition
A Strictly star has confessed they are lucky to be alive after needing emergency surgery during their stint on the show.
Peep Show actor Robert Webb had to drop out of the popular BBC dance contest with Dianne Buswell just days ahead of the fourth live show in 2021.
At the time the dance duo shared a statement to announce their exit. They explained they had to step back due to health issues following Robert’s major heart surgery. The op came just a year before his appearance on the contest. It came after doctors found the star had a congenital heart defect.
And now he’s revealed how he feels blessed to still be alive after his health woes. “I very nearly died,” he said at the Rose D’Or Awards recently. “And yet I made a full recovery and so that is an amazing gift, to have got that close but to come out of it with a normal life expectancy and normal everything else.”
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He went on: “It was amazing and every now and again when things bum me out slightly I can look out of the window and remember that it is a beautiful miracle to be alive. It’s a really good thing.”
Robert added he feels as though, looking back, he took on the Strictly opportunity too soon. Describing it as “challenging”, he said he was a “bit optimistic” to be trying such a feat after just a year and a half in recovery.
“It was a positive experience but my body just wasn’t ready for it at all,” he admitted. “Strictly was my bungy jump. I was like, okay I’ve got this whole new body, let’s take it out for a spin and see what it can do.”
And despite enjoying the experience, he is keen to draw a line under the moment. He admits he won’t be returning to give it another go despite having made a full recovery.
He previously told The Times his thought process about accepting the opportunity in the first place. He explained: “Well, these opportunities don’t come along very often. They don’t happen to everyone.
“And I’d just nearly died, so I thought, this is no time to be sitting on the edges, why don’t you contribute and participate? It all sounded like a good idea at the time. But it all added up to a big mistake. On paper I was in quite good shape, but then that schedule just hit me like a sack of dancing potatoes.
“That schedule is a law unto itself and I just wasn’t anywhere close to being able to do that. I don’t even know if I could now. I don’t think it’d be a very good idea. Also, I just couldn’t remember the moves.”
The star previously opened up candidly about his struggles with alcohol. He admitted he felt like he was “slow killing” himself due to excessive drinking which led to addiction.
He also confessed that his surgery changed his outlook on life helped improve his marriage. He said in 2023: “We had been in couple’s therapy previously because of my daytime drinking.
“So the surgery changed a lot. It was really the best thing that could have happened to me.
Source: Mirror
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