Dan Walker has revealed his three children played a heartwarming role in his decision to join the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Chatting to HELLO! and other press at the annual Strictly Q&A's this month, the BBC presenter admitted he signed up after being asked by his children.
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"[My kids are] 14, 12 and 10, and they sat me down at Christmas and said 'Dad if you ever get asked again we'd really love you to do it.'" he began.
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"I've got two daughters who are 14 and 12 and very much into dancing and Strictly and all that sort of stuff, too."
Dan continued: "I've done a lot of telly that I wanted to do for a long time and anyone who's got kids that age will know it's rare to do something that your kids are fully invested in. So they're really excited and that was a big part of it really.
"And they've only ever asked me to do two shows, Saturday Mash Up and this, and I did Saturday Mash Up in the summer, and here we are!"
The 44-year-old also revealed the pandemic was one of the reasons for joining this year's cast, admitting his time reporting on "grim stories" inspired him to do something different.
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Dan is gearing up for the new series
"I cover a lot of news and the last 18 months has been grim story after grim story after grim story, and I thought it's a nice opportunity to do something fun that's very different and doesn't involve reading headlines about awful stuff and just to have a bit of a giggle and learn a new skill."
Dan is clearly looking forward to taking to the ballroom and has given his fans sneak peeks at what's to come. Earlier this week, the broadcaster shared a glimpse of inside his first practice session on his Instagram.
The image shows Dan lying face down on the wooden floor with his arms and legs splayed out. "First #Strictly training session after getting up at 3am this morning! Shattered but ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!!!" he wrote. Roll on Saturday!
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