Ellie Leach, the winner of Strictly winner 2024 Come Dancing, has confessed that her father repaired her glitterball trophy in his shed after it broke during her travels.
The former Coronation Street star was handed the trophy after with her professional partner Vito Coppola in December.
However, the 22-year-old said it accidentally took a bit of a battering on her journey home to Manchester.
“My dad took it to his shed and he’s fixed it all up”, she said.
In an interview, Leach said the accident happened while trying to be “quite humble” in the days after her success.
“I had to get all this stuff from London on the train to Manchester,” she said.
“I didn’t want to carry it and be like ‘Oh here I go’, so it was in my bag and it broke.”
She said on arrival in the North, she handed it to her father, who knew just what to do.
“My dad fixed it and now it’s perfect,” she said.
She added that it was now in pride of place “in the middle of the table for everyone to see”.
Leach said being in the show had been a transformational experience. Leach, who has been performing on the Strictly live tour with Coppola, also said taking part in the show had been something that was “completely out of my comfort zone” and, as she had never danced before, was also a step into “the unknown.”
“I just was like, ‘You know what, whatever Vito says to me, I’m just going to do it. Because what’s the point in saying no?'”
She added that it had been a transformational experience.
“I didn’t realize how much I would have learned about myself and how much I would have grown in confidence,” she said.
“I just feel like it completely changed me for the better.”
She felt to become Strictly Winner 2024.
