I’m too famous now for a nudist camp...
WHY STAR CRAIG STAYS STRICTLY UNDER WRAPS
STRICTLY Come Dancing star Craig Revel Horwood has revealed the naked truth about fame – fans will never get to see him waltz ’n’ all.
The dance contest judge, who doesn’t think twice about tearing contestants off a strip on the BBC One show, reckons he is now so easy to recognise he couldn’t even strip off on a nudist beach.
Craig, 55, said: “The cost of celebrity is enormous. You give up your anonymity and that is really important to a lot of people.
“The thing I dislike the most is that you can’t do what you want to do in public. I could not go to a nudist camp, for instance.
“If I did it would have to be completely inside somewhere with everyone signing a NDA (non-disclosure agreement)!”
It sets Craig apart from some other celebrities who love life in the buff – i ncluding Helen Mirren, 75, who has declared herself “a naturist at heart”.
When he’s on the Strictly panel with fellow judges Shirley Ballas and Bruno Tonioli, forthright Craig does not hold back and says exactly what is on his mind.
Price
But the star realised he was going to have to keep some things under wraps as soon as the show was first broadcast 16 years ago.
He said: “I started paying the price of fame the very next day. I went out on to the street after the first episode of Strictly.
“There were people recognising me. I had truck drivers screaming and people at bus stops staring and shouting things a at me.
“You lo lose your freedom in a way. wa I always think I have lost that.
“I can’t see any good i n being a celebrity. The good is allowing myself to work for charities – that’s the only thing t I can see that is i worth it.”
Craig, who lives in Hampshire, is engaged to horticulturist Jonathan Myring, 35.
But he had almost given up on dating before he met his fiancé on the dating site Tinder.
“I have been through nasty s***s in my life, as I call them,” he told Kate Thornton on her podcast White Wine Time. “I was sort of giving up on the whole thing.
“On internet dating sites most times people just want me to talk Strictly, get them a date with Aljaz or a date with AJ.
“You get a lot of that. But I was lucky enough to meet someone genuine. And it was refreshing.”
Strictly Come Dancing is back on air this autumn.
The thing I dislike is you can’t do what you want to in public