Annabel Croft says her family were ‘worried’ about how much weight she lost during Strictly
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Annabel Croft has said her family were “worried” over how much weight she lost while competing in Strictly Come Dancing.
The former professional tennis player who was a semi-finalist in last year’s series of the BBC dance competition, revealed she lost 10lb during intense training.
However, the 57-year-old said she has probably put all the weight back on now and attributes yoga, tennis and cross-country running to being “the fittest I have ever been”.
She told Woman & Home magazine: “My kids were getting worried because during Strictly I went really scrawny.
“I couldn’t keep [weight] on with eight hours of dance a day. I lost about 10lb. It’s probably gone back on now.
She added: “I need to find a dance class to keep going and, right now, I’m the fittest I’ve ever been. I try to exercise every day.
“I walk, do yoga, play tennis twice a week for pure enjoyment, and run cross-country with a group on a Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for about 40 minutes.
“I like being outside in the fresh air. I can’t bear the idea of going into a sweaty gym.”
Croft, who was the youngest Briton to compete at Wimbledon for almost a century at the age of 15, took part in Strictly Come Dancing just three months after her husband, Mel Coleman, died from cancer last May.
Before competing, she said that the show had “come at the right time for me”, and now reflects on it as a “positive” distraction for her and her family at a difficult time.
“I’ve done lots of extraordinary things in my career, but Strictly is different … A distraction at this terrible time in our family’s lives was quite positive,” she told the magazine.
“I didn’t do everything perfectly, but after everything we’ve been through, I thought, ‘Does it really matter?’
“Awful things go on in life, so getting a few steps wrong was never going to be major. Nothing matters any more. Nothing means anything, actually. We’re all still trying to process it all.
“I just think of what’s most important in life – friends and family, spending time with people I want to spend time with and doing things I want to do.
“You don’t know how much time is left,” she added.
Wimbledon break
There have been calls by tennis fans for Croft to become the BBC’s lead presenter at the Wimbledon tennis championships, after Sue Barker’s retirement in 2022.
“It’s lovely that people think I can do [Sue Barker’s] job, but I’ll just go with the flow,” Croft said.
“I’ve covered Wimbledon for 25, maybe even 30 years, so I’ll enjoy doing it in whatever capacity.
“It was the first year I hosted the [trophy] ceremony at the end of last year’s tournament. The most tragic thing was that Mel went before I did it.
“He had been beyond excited, so I was never going to pull out because he would not have wanted me to do that,” she added.
