EX-STRICTLY champ Kevin Clifton has revealed he’s taking a career break to spend more time with baby daughter Minnie.
The professional dancer and performer, 40, has been working non-stop since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, with back-to-back stage shows taking him away from the family home he shares with Stacey Dooley, 36, and their five-month-old.
But now he’s decided enough is enough, and will take a much-deserved rest when his current contract with stage show Strictly Ballroom is complete.
He told Digital Spy: “It went Singin’ in the Rain, Rock of Ages, The War of the Worlds, Burn the Floor, then I did The Games on ITV, Who Do You Think You Are? and then back to Singin’ in the Rain on tour. Then I started rehearsals for Strictly Ballroom the day after I finished Singin’ in the Rain.
“By the time I finish in mid-July it will have been a 10-month tour of Strictly Ballroom. So, since we came out of Covid it’s just been back-to-back non-stop.
“So, for the rest of this year I’ve decided I’m going to take a break from all performing work just to be a dad. I just don’t want to miss any of Minnie. So, yeah, my plan is to take a break as soon as this contract finishes.”
Kevin had an emotional experience learning about his family history in a new episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
The former Strictly Come Dancing pro was the latest famous face to take part in the hit BBC series and his search took him to Canada.
His first stop was an orphanage, where he learned his great-great-grandmother, Emma Grace Elizabeth had been put into an orphanage as a child alongside her siblings.
Kevin was keen to find out what had happened to Emma’s parents, and soon learned his great-great-great grandfather was 40 when he had married his great-great-great grandmother Grace, who was 16.
He said: “This is a picture of my great-great-great-grandparents…John and Grace and two of the three siblings and I don’t know which one is which.
“I can see they got married in January 1882, there are a few years when these two are together and having kids, and all of a sudden they have ended up in an orphanage.”
Later, Kevin read a newspaper report about a court case where it was revealed Grace had had her eyes “blackened” by her husband.
Kevin said: “It’s weird because obviously, I am feeling for my great-great-great-grandmother right now.
“But then that guy who is a baddie to me is my great-great-great grandfather behaving like this.
“It is not comfortable to me, it’s not comfortable at all.”
