As far as Strictly debuts go, Thomas Skinner‘s has been trickier than most. Despite not having taken a single dance step on the ballroom floor, the ‘cheeky chappie’ market stall holder, turned mattress salesman, turned Apprentice star has rarely been out of the headlines for the past three weeks.
For a show that’s become as famous for the backstage antics of its contestants as for its sequins and paso dobles, that must be a record.
Yet – mercifully for Strictly bosses at least – it was an affair Skinner conducted behind his wife’s back three years ago, before he signed up for the show, that’s had everyone talking.
While Skinner, 34, must have seen it coming – a stock check of skeletons in the cupboard is standard for any Strictly signing – nothing prepared him for the seismic reaction it caused.
In a tearful mea culpa, he had confessed to a one-off fling with aesthetician Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, weeks after his wedding to ‘love of his life’ Sinead in 2022.
Amy-Lucy hit back, however, lambasting him in a blistering interview with the Daily Mail, insisting it was not a quick spin, but rather a full-blown, three month affair. Whatever the truth and timings, there is no doubt it has been a bruising time for all – but especially for Sinead, mother of his three young children. Having it all dragged up again was, he tells me, ‘awful’.
‘It wasn’t difficult for me because I know the mistakes I’ve made in my life, but it was awful for my poor wife to read it all, and that’s why I feel bad,’ says Skinner in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.
‘We had already moved on from this. I’m doing Strictly and I’m in the public eye now. My whole life has been dug up and regurgitated and my poor wife has to read something that she has moved on from.
Skinner and his wife Sinead were recently spotted taking their children out for a meal – appearing to be one big happy family
Skinner said: ‘We had already moved on from this. I’m doing Strictly and I’m in the public eye now. My whole life has been dug up and regurgitated and my poor wife has to read something that she has moved on from’
‘It took a long, long time for her to forgive me and we have worked at it. I will never say I’m perfect but it was hard seeing my wife relive all of this. But she said that it wouldn’t break us, it wouldn’t ruin us. She told me that she loves me to pieces and I love her.’
And yes, Sinead most definitely will be there in the audience at Strictly’s studios in Elstree, Hertfordshire, tonight. And every Saturday until he exits the competition.
Skinner is surprisingly likeable. His catchphrase ‘Bosh!’ on The Apprentice in 2019 made him a stand-out star, if not the actual winner, and endeared him to Lord Sugar, who described him as the sort of chap you’d want beside you in the trenches.
Yet he’s courted controversy, too. He’s quite open about his criminal record (for handling stolen goods back in his days as a market trader in 2012) and his centre-right, traditional views, shared with his millions of followers on social media.
It was the latter that brought him to the attention of a certain JD Vance, America’s vice president. During Vance’s trip to the Cotswolds this summer, he invited Skinner over for a barbecue – an invitation which, of course, he accepted gleefully. Not that he wants to talk much about that – although by all accounts, it was a jolly afternoon.
Skinner’s main focus at the moment is Sinead, and nothing but Sinead. He says how terribly sorry he is and how grateful he is that she didn’t kick him out. He tells me how they went to great lengths to avoid splitting up, but concedes it hasn’t been an easy journey.
‘My wife is my rock and I love her to absolute pieces,’ he says. ‘I made a mistake. I’ll hold my hands up and we have moved on from that. We moved on from that as a partnership.
‘Since then we’ve moved home, had two more little Skinners. [Twin daughters Roma and Darla were born in June 2023, while son, Henry is now four.] We have built a better life. Sinead is my best mate. Now she is so invested in my Strictly journey, she is cracking up that I am doing this.’
Amy-Lucy O’Rourke said her fling with Skinner was not a one-off but a three-month affair
Skinner has been gearing up for his appearance on Strictly by practising his moves with his twin daughters Roma and Darla
Talking of the ‘little Skinners’, he says the girls are excited at the prospect of seeing Daddy dancing on TV, and have been putting him through a few routines of their own when he gets home from training. ‘My little girls love dancing,’ he smiles. ‘I want to make them proud, too.’
We meet 48 hours before he’s due to step on to the famous Strictly dance floor for the first time with professional partner Amy Dowden.
He’s been spray-tanned and lost a stone already, he says, a result of two weeks of rigorous rehearsals and an overhaul of his diet, thanks to Amy.
As his fans know, Skinner is a regular at Dino’s Cafe in Leyton, east London, from where he regularly posts videos of his breakfast blowouts or ‘proper bit of grub’, as he calls it.
We’re talking chicken curries, spicy Korean noodles and lasagnes, all tucked away and finished off with a motivational message or two: ‘Never stop fighting for your goals. You are ten times stronger than you can imagine. Bosh!’
Nowadays, it’s more likely to be poached eggs and a lean steak. ‘I’m taking this seriously, so I’m not having curry for breakfast any more,’ he says. ‘When Amy came round my house for dinner this week we were eating couscous.
‘Normally I would have a big old curry, a couple of cakes after or a trifle and then maybe a burger at midnight or a Pot Noodle. I don’t stop eating. I’ve lost just under a stone now. By Christmas, if I stay in, I’ll be stick thin.’
He’s no dietary saint, however. As we speak, Skinner is chewing on Drumstick lollies and proudly tells me that the can of Fanta is his first fizzy drink in two weeks, but he needs the sugar ‘to keep me going’.
Perhaps he deserves the odd treat or two. Skinner concedes he is the underdog in this year’s line-up. Weighing in at 18st 7lbs at the beginning of the show’s tough training regime and without a jot of dance experience, he’s also nursing a lot of old rugby injuries. Yet, just like one of his motivational homilies, he’s going to be giving it ‘110 per cent’.
Training starts at 6am and goes straight through until the evening. His opening dance will be a sizzling Spanish paso doble, and Amy has already nicknamed him El Matador.
He doesn’t see himself as a celebrity, insisting his feet are very much on the ground, although he does get recognised in Essex, where he lives.
‘I went to Sainsbury’s for some milk at 9.30pm the other night and there is old Dot in there who said she had been reading about me in the paper. She said she felt sorry for me and was going to vote for me.
‘I’m still going to work. I will be delivering two mattresses on Saturday morning in my van before I go to the Strictly studios.’
It was his time spent bartering and bantering on market stalls that gave him his confidence and drive. ‘I want to prove to people that I can dance, that’s why I’m the first in and the last out of training,’ says Skinner.
‘I’m going for it. I haven’t got any dance experience. I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I am. I wore out my first pair of dance shoes in ten days. I’ve got holes in the soles and the heel has fallen off. That’s never happened in Strictly before.’
As for the spray tans, he hasn’t held back on that front, either. ‘I’ve gone mahogany brown,’ he giggles. ‘My wife gets them the time. There are brown pillow cases everywhere, but now the shoe is on the other foot. Now it’s my turn.’
Skinner has become something of a political figure in recent years, being courted by most of the parties, all believing that his working class, ambitious nature makes him the ideal poster boy. However, he insists he isn’t political.
‘JD Vance inviting me to a BBQ has made more people interested in me,’ he says. ‘He said he was a fan and I went for a beer with him. It was a mad request, and you don’t know what you are going to do until it happens. I went and met him and I’m pleased I did that.’
Skinner remains coy about his friendship but does admit he wishes his famous friend could help him on his Strictly journey. ‘He would be voting for me, but it doesn’t count in America,’ he jokes.
As well as wanting to impress Sinead and their children, Skinner also doesn’t want to let down his professional partner Amy, who two years ago was diagnosed with breast cancer. After returning to the show last year, she was forced to pull out after collapsing after a performance.
This year, Skinner wants to give Amy a series to remember: ‘Amy has been through so much and I want to do it as much for her. She’s a fighter and I have seen the kind of person she is. She doesn’t give up and I don’t want to let her down. I know she wants this as much as I do, so I don’t want to mess up for her.’
Skinner smiles as he tells me his mum is ‘absolutely buzzing’ that he’s on Strictly. He says she’s never missed an episode, and when he invited her to the launch show she was worried she wouldn’t be able to take time off from her call centre job.
As for his fellow dancers, he says they are ‘all lovely’ and many sent him private messages of support when news of his affair broke. He is sharing a dressing room with former England rugby star Chris Robshaw. As a former member of the school rugby team, Skinner says he is thrilled with the pairing.
Like many of his new BBC colleagues, he is devastated for Dani Dyer, the bubbly daughter of actor Danny Dyer, who’s had to pull out of the show due to injury. She will be replaced by 2017 Love Island winner Amber Davies.
‘She was like my little mate,’ says Skinner. ‘I’m gutted for her because she was so good at dancing. She is such a lovely, happy girl and she was so up for it.’
Although Dani is the first physical casualty of the show, some might say it’s Sinead who’s shouldered the first Strictly blow. I wonder if he would have changed his mind about signing up had he known the intense scrutiny he would put his family under? ‘Not really. Though if I could change my wife being upset then I would,’ he says.
‘But she hasn’t stopped smiling since I started Strictly, and that’s why I know I made the right decision to do it.’
