DAME DARCEY BUSSELL

DARCEY, 49, was born was born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle in London.

Her parents divorced when she was three and her father played no role in her life. Darcey’s mother Andrea married Australian dentist Phillip Bussell who adopted her.

Diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, Darcey was bullied at school.

She took up ballet because her mum hoped it would ease her clumsiness. Darcey says: “I was a clumsy child, energetic and knocking into things. I’d spill things and get food down me, so Mum never wanted me in there.

“If I said I’d help, she’d draw breath. It was a reason she sent me to ballet classes – to control my clumsiness. And to sort out my bandy legs.”

Darcey won her first principal role, aged 18, at Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. She became the youngest ever principal dancer at the Royal Ballet at the age of 20 and spent her career there before retiring from ballet in 2007.

Darcey, who joined the show in 2013, is married to Australian businessman Angus Forbes, pictured below, and they have two daughters Phoebe, 17, and Zoe, 14. Like Craig, Darcey has suffered pain from dancing injuries and had a hip resurfacing operation in 2015.

She joked: “I’m bionic now.”