Singer and songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor competed in the 11th series of Strictly Come Dancing in late 2013.
Brendan Cole was her dance partner. Together, they made it into the final four, but not without putting a strain on Sophie’s marital life with husband Richard Jones.
In her 2021 biography, Spinning Plates, she even went so far as to compare the atmosphere created by the show to “a cult”.
Her criticism of the show resurfaced amid reports concerning Graziano Di Prima and Zara McDermott. Yikes. Here’s what we know.
Sophie and her husband Richard Jones share five children (Credit: Splashnews.com)
Strictly gave Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s marriage ‘a good old shake’
Read My Lips, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s debut album, came out in 2001. It went double platinum, and three of its four singles, including Murder on the Dancefloor, reached the top three in the UK charts.
12 years later, Sophie – on Saturday Kitchen Live this weekend (June 14) – competed on Strictly Come Dancing. She and her professional dance partner Brendan Cole placed fourth overall. Hard work for the two of them, sure. But for her and her husband Richard, it may have been harder still.
“Some of the show was pure joy and exhilaration,” Sophie wrote in her 2021 memoir Spinning Plates. “But some of it was seriously intense and, even for a strong marriage like we have, it gave our foundations a good old shake.”
Competing on Strictly Come Dancing tested her own resilience – and her husband’s trust (Credit: CoverImages.com)
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