Katherine Jenkins has shed tears after performing a waltz in memory of her father on US show Dancing With The Stars. When the show's contestants were asked to recall the most poignant year of their life for the theme of their dance, the Welsh mezzo-soprano selected 1996, the year her dad Selwyn died. "In 1996, we found out that my father had lung cancer. I was 15 and my sister was 13," she said. "I got pulled out of my class one day by my auntie who came to school to say, 'Your dad's gone into a coma and you need to come to the hospice', I hadn't said goodbye to him and it happened so quickly."
"The following day he passed away. I'm so glad I got to say goodbye properly." Katherine, 31, received a standing ovation, made one of the judges cry and wept on the dancefloor after she performed a waltz to Josh Groban's To Where You Are.
"It completely sums up the way I feel about my dad... it's about knowing that they're there with you, you feeling them all around with you," she said of the song. "If I could go back and tell my dad that I would be in America and we'd be dancing on TV for him he just wouldn't believe that," she added. Katherine, whose father drove her to music lessons as she pursued her singing dream, said: "I wouldn't be where I am today without my dad. "I'd hope that when he watches this he'd be so proud. Dad, this waltz is for you. "Len Goodman praised the singer as a "wonderful dancer" while Bruno Tonioli called her "sensational". She topped the leaderboard once again with 29 points out of 30, after two previous weeks at the top of the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.