Fleur’s Strictly Come Dancing role ‘in memory of late father’

FLEUR East has spoken about her personal reason for doing Strictly Come Dancing saying it was her late father’s favourite show.

The singer and presenter, 34, who came runner-up on The X Factor in 2014 and has since launched a career on radio and TV, said her stint on the popular BBC One series will be in memory of Malcolm.

Explaining why she wanted to do Strictly, the former I’m A Celebrity star said: “Firstly, it’s the best show ever. Secondly, for me it’s a personal reason, my dad passed away in 2020 and this was his favourite show. “He even used to get annoyed that he had to miss out on Strictly when I was on The X Factor because they were on at the same time.”

East added:“When I was deciding whether or not to do Strictly I spoke to my sister and she reminded me of dad watching it all the time and then that was the deciding factor straight away, so that’s my motivation for doing it.”

Asked about who her biggest competition will be, she said: “Having watched the show for years, you can’t predict who’s going to do well, so I just think I’m going to focus on myself.

“I’m so hard on myself anyway, I know that I’ll be watching back everything I’ve done, picking it apart and trying to compete with my last performance.

“That may be a cheesy answer, but genuinely I can’t suss anyone, because everyone’s going to be different, everyone’s got their own story, everyone’s got their own reason, and it’s lots of different personalities.”