Strictly Anton: Bruce was like a dad... we even joked I was his love child

Strictly star adds: “Brucie was an excellent golfer but he was very competitive. We had bets and I would take the money off him and then I would end up losing at the 17th hole and have to give it all back!” Brucie died last year of bronchopneumonia and his passing had a big i mpact on Anton. He explains: “I spoke to Bruce a couple of weeks before and he said he was doing better – he hadn’t been well. “So I was very surprised and sad when he passed away. But Bruce was like that, he was never sick and wanted the show to go on.

“He always said that showbusiness retires you and not the other way around.

“Strictly is still a great show but it’s not the same without him and I miss him terribly. He was my hero growing up and he became a very dear friend throughout our time on the series together.

“I was honoured to be asked to take part in the BBC1 tribute to him and Brendan Cole was asked too as he also worked with him right from the beginning.”

Anton recalls how he and Brucie would always talk about family and kids and the veteran star’s wife, “darling Wilnelia”.

Anton says: “They were together over 30 years and he absolutely worshipped her. When I first met Brucie I wasn’t dating anyone.

“It was only when I met my now wife Hannah six years ago – at the golf club – that I knew what Brucie meant when he said that he had met his soulmate and best friend. “Brucie and Hannah did meet at a charity lunch and I couldn’t tear them apart. But I am lucky and I hope that I have a relationship with Hannah that is not that dissimilar to Bruce and Wilnelia. Last year, Hannah gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl and Anton is full of praise for his wife. He said: “Hannah is an incredible woman, she is a wonderful mum to our one- year- old twins and is fabulously supportive. “I have been so busy since the twins arrived last year what with Strictly, recording an album, writing a book and now being on tour. “But Hannah is a wonderful mother and if I can have the years that Brucie had with Wilnelia I will be