Thomas Skinner’s mood has been noticeably strained this week, but it’s not down to nerves over the prime-time launch of Strictly Come Dancing tonight.
As his new Strictly co-stars, who mostly adore him, can’t help but notice, the larger than life Essex-born businessman has seemed as though ‘he has the weight of the world on his shoulders’. One insider on the BBC dance show tells me that he has been in and out of studios to take fraught phone calls, with one adding: ‘It doesn’t take the brain of Britain to work out why.’
Indeed not. For Skinner, who was catapulted to fame in 2019 after winning a place on The Apprentice and has boasted of his friendship with US Vice President JD Vance, has found himself struck down by the infamous Strictly curse. Only unlike those who have been caught out before him, Thomas Skinner is yet to set foot on the dance floor.
For those unfamiliar with the scandal, which has been unravelling with dizzying speed over the last ten days, it was revealed that in 2022 Thomas had an affair with aesthetician Amy-Lucy O’Rourke – a liaison which started just days after his wedding to wife Sinead, now mother to his three young children.
Skinner’s extra-curricular behaviour may well have passed under the radar were it not for the fact that he signed up for this year’s Strictly, whereupon his life was subjected to scrutiny in a way it never been before.
Last weekend, both Thomas and Amy-Lucy, a 35-year-old single mum, told their wildly contrasting stories.
Thomas insisted their liaison was a ‘fling’ and ‘nothing more than that’ after they met in a pub and she later offered him free treatments in return for publicity.
‘It was the one time, it was a mistake. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible about it,’ Thomas told The Sun on Sunday.
Thomas Skinner with wife Sinead and their children this week
Amy-Lucy O’Rourke told the Daily Mail that her relationship with Skinner lasted three months
‘I felt so guilty, I told my wife. I let her down in that brief moment of madness where I wasn’t thinking, where I didn’t appreciate what I had. When I told my wife, I fully understood if she was to never speak to me again. No one else made me do what I’ve done. But if shows something so brief could ruin your life.’
But while he claimed it was an isolated incident, Amy-Lucy told me in an interview with the Daily Mail on Monday that their liaison lasted for three months.
He was, she told me, involved in every aspect of her life, helping her with chores and whisking her off on dates to swanky restaurants.
He even told her that he loved her. ‘Thomas told me I was the love of his life and sold me an absolute dream,’ she said. ‘He told me that he was in a loveless relationship of convenience. We were originally friends but with his sweet talking and his lies, he made me believe we were in love and that we were perfect for each other.
‘He would stand in the mirror with me and say, “Look, we’ll be Mr and Mrs Skinner”.
‘That is actually traumatising to me, you don’t say that to someone when you’re already happily married.’
More later, of loyal wife Sinead, whom sources tell me, has been ‘very supportive’ in this tumultuous week and is in the audience for tonight’s show, which was pre-recorded earlier this month. And friends of Sinead’s say she intends to be there to support her husband when the live shows start next week.
For I can reveal the impact Amy-Lucy’s revelations have had on 34-year-old Thomas, a man who has tried to create a reputation for himself as a jovial family man, known for his catchphrase ‘Bosh’, which he uses at the end of his sentences.
Skinner insists that his relationship with Amy-Lucy was just a fling
‘Amy-Lucy has been a thorn in Thomas’ side all week,’ says a friend of the father-of-three. ‘It’s the biggest week of his career yet she is in the background flinging more and more at him. She won’t shut up. It has been stressful, it’s been tough but he’s determined to keep going.’
Skinner’s desire to rebuild his image as a family man was evident in the photos of him enjoying a trip out locally with Sinead, his son and twin daughters on Thursday.
Amy-Lucy, who lives close to Skinner near Brentwood, Essex, has indeed been hounding her former lover non-stop this week.
Following her interview with the Daily Mail, which sources close to him say left him ‘shell shocked’, she has also been posting incendiary claims on her social media.
Amy-Lucy even posted a number of WhatsApp messages between the pair which confirmed that his claims their entanglement was a one-off were false. They also contained sexually explicit content which prompted much fury within Team Skinner.
In turn, they have retaliated, revealing that she was a ‘nightmare’ after her romance with Thomas ended in August 2022, just three months after he married Sinead.
‘Amy was a hassle to Thomas,’ said one friend of his. ‘She was difficult after they parted ways and it was hard for Sinead to deal with. What Amy-Lucy is forgetting here is the hurt that this is all causing her.
‘Sinead and Thomas are together so why would she do this now? She is an absolute nightmare.’
Skinner’s wife Sinead intends to support him while he is on Strictly, starting this Saturday
Yet it is clear the Strictly team see him being a hit with viewers.
I know who his professional partner is but I cannot share it ahead of tonight’s show. Suffice to say it is a startling choice.
For their casting makes clear that Strictly bosses are keen for him to go a long way in the competition. Others, aware of her identity, have spoken to me of their concern – for reasons I cannot yet go into in case it identifies them.
‘It’s clear that those senior on the show think he can be in for a while, that his Strictly journey will last a long time,’ says one BBC source.
This show of support is in contrast to the speculation that the BBC might ditch Skinner from the Strictly line up.
It all began at the press launch two weeks ago when he was about to be interviewed by a table of Sunday newspaper journalists, including one from The Sun who had been having WhatsApp conversations with Amy-Lucy.
The reporter placed her phone on the table in front of Thomas to record his interview but at the same time as she did, messages came up from Amy-Lucy which he spotted. It prompted him to walk out of the event, held at the Elstree Studios, where Strictly is filmed.
But one BBC insider tells me: ‘Strictly’s producers love Thomas, they are very pleased with his hiring and they think that the viewers will love him.
‘As such, they have been very supportive to Thomas and have been checking in on him this week to see if he is ok.’
This has angered some quarters of the Strictly ‘family’ who believe that the show’s chiefs should have ‘vetted’ Skinner better, particularly after the scandals that have engulfed the family favourite show over the last two series.
Last year Wynne Evans brought the programme into disrepute when he was seen by viewers placing his hand on his partner Katya Jones’ waist, and she instantly removed it. Though she wrote it off as a ‘joke’, The Mail on Sunday later revealed that Wynne made a vile sexual slur towards dancer Janette Manrara at the launch of the Strictly tour. He was later axed for the comments.
And in 2023, Graziano Di Prima kicked his partner Zara McDermott during training, while Amanda Abbington made accusations about Giovanni Pernice of which the most severe were dismissed by BBC investigators. ‘Strictly doesn’t need this nonsense from Thomas,’ says one staffer. ‘It’s not fair, it overshadows the show. It should be about the sequins and the dancing, not sex and deceit.’
This opinion is most certainly not shared by the upper echelons of the BBC. I’m told one reason they haven’t considered axing him is because they fear that if they do they will be accused of political bias.
As it is, his unveiling as a contestant prompted much fury from the Left after Skinner, who has been vocal in both his criticism of London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and in his support for Donald Trump, revealed that he was a friend of US Vice President JD Vance, who he said earlier this year had messaged him and asked him to meet up during his recent trip to the UK.
Thomas is also being courted by Reform UK and there has even been talk of him becoming their candidate for London Mayor. He said in June he was ‘thinking about giving it a go in politics’. Tory sources also say that they ‘can’t get enough of him’ thanks to his ‘posh bosh’ – posh referring to him having had a successful career – image which they believe can help them destroy Labour.
Adding to the controversy, Thomas also has a criminal record for handling stolen goods, receiving a conviction in 2011 for purchasing 4,992 tubes of Body Shop cleansing gels and 2,000 diazepam tablets from an unreliable source. He has admitted his crime, putting it down to a naive mistake when he was working on market stalls as a young man.
When contacted, the BBC said it was aware of Skinner’s past mistakes as part of its extensive background checks, and that the conviction was spent.
In response to fans calling him out, Thomas took to his X account to say that he’s made mistakes and owned them.
‘Yes I did get arrested when I was younger, in fact I got arrested several times. And been charged and paid the price for my convictions. I wrote a book about it.’ What remains to be seen, of course, is just how good his tango, or quickstep, will actually be.
But as one show insider tells me, it simply won’t matter.
‘There’s a view that he has so much appeal with the audience it doesn’t matter if he can dance or not, the viewers will love him.’ As Skinner himself would say: Bosh.
