Anton Du Beke, 56, has graced our TV screens every autumn for the last 17 years asStrictly Come Dancing’s longest-serving professional dancer.
In 2021 he stepped down as a dancer and instead sat on the judging panel.He has returned to this role for 2022, alongside fellow judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
But while we may see Anton’s face every year, we don’t actually know much about the man behind the glitz and glamour we see on screen.
Some may be shocked to learn that his name isn’t actually Anton Du Beke. The dancer was actually born Anthony Paul Beke, with close family and friends nicknaming him Tony.
When he began to pursue a career in dancing he was first known as Anton Beke, later adding the Du, and although it’s unclear why he made this decision to begin with, it does certainly have a nice ring to it.
Speaking toThe Times, Anton revealed that young Tony didn’t have the best childhood, and that he experienced physical abuse at the hands of his aggressive father.
Describing his father, Anton said he was "a hard, Eastern European type [and] a heavy drinker, heavy smoker.”
While he did not have the best family life as a child, Anton has since created his own loving family, with wife Hannah Summers, who he married in 2017.
Hannah is the Chief Marketing Officer at leading mobile network security company AdaptiveMobile, which is the company responsible for half of all texts sent across the whole world.
The couple unsuccessfully tried to conceive for years, until they gave IVF a try, with Hannah becoming pregnant just three months into treatment.
She gave birth to twins George and Henrietta on March 30, 2017.
Anton first served as a judge on the dancing competition last year when he stepped in forBruno Tonioli.
Bruno, who had regularlybeen taking 10-hour flights backwards and forwards between London and Los Angelesever since he started working on Dancing With The Stars in 2005, revealed that this was a huge factor in his departure from the show.
Speaking toThe Sun, he said: "I'm done. I just can’t do it anymore. Going back and forth was too much."
In response to what he thought of his replacement, Bruno added to the publication: "Anton is brilliant. He will be brilliant."
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