Strictly’s Neil Jones shares sweet update on baby daughter
Strictly Come Dancing star Neil Jones has opened up about life as a new dad to baby daughter Havana.
The professional dancer and his fiancée, Love Island star Chyna Mills, welcomed their first child together earlier this month.
Talking exclusively to Digital Spy at Best's Heroes Awards this week (October 18), Neil shared an update on how mum, dad and baby are all doing.
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"She’s just a cutie," he tells us. "It’s early stages, so at the moment she just feeds and sleeps, feeds and sleeps."
Asked about how the new parents are coping with the night feeds, Neil replied: "You always laugh because people say about sleep, but then you say it doesn’t matter because as dancers we don’t sleep anyway."
"I always make sure i’m back during the night times, just to help her (Chyna) through the nights with the feeds because obviously it’s a lot."
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The Strictly dancer called Chyna a "brilliant" mum and said she is "over the moon" with the new family addition. He added how Havana's arrival has had an impact on his life perspective.
"It’s one of those things where you turn around and go life isn’t just about you anymore," he tells us. "Now you’ve got this human being that you’ve got to take care of, so everything you do, you’re thinking more or less about the future."
Neil credits the whole Strictly family as being really supportive, with many of them lining up to visit baby Havana.
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"Gorka (Marquez) is keen, being a daddy himself," he tells Digital Spy. "Nancy (Xu) and Dianne (Buswell) too, they all want to meet her.
"They’ve just been so excited the whole time," he adds. "A lot of them didn’t know what happened and they realised I wasn’t there on one of the live shows and then I started getting the messages coming in like 'Why are you not here Neil, what’s going on?'."
Neil is one of many Strictly stars to have recently welcomed a new baby. In July, Gorka and his fiancée Gemma Atkinson welcomed son Thiago. Later that month, It Takes Two host Janette Manrara and former Strictly professional Aljaž Škorjanec became parents to baby daughter Lyra.
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"There’s so many and it’s been so nice that it’s all around the same time," Neil said of the expanding Strictly brood.
Neil is without a celebrity partner for this year's series but admits that the 2023 Strictly castare a talented bunch.
Asked who he thinks is the frontrunner of the competition, the professional dancer said it was too early to call.
"I want to wait till Blackpool," he says. "I still feel like we’re going to have one of those days where we have a shocker.
"I’m waiting till Blackpoll to call it and even then, most of the time I get it wrong. It’s so close between them."
More information about the Best Heroes and their inspiring stories will be available to read in the next issue of Best magazine, on sale November 7.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturdays and Sundays on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Tickets for Strictly's 2024 live arena tour are available now.
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