Helen Skelton hits back at Strictly ‘fix’ claims after her childhood dance awards are revealed

HELEN Skelton has denied Strictly Come Dancing ‘fix’ claims after her childhood dance awards were revealed.

The TV star had said she ‘can’t dance’ before The Sun revealed she was a trained tap dancer and had once won a tap award named after Ken Dodd.

Helen, who will be in the new series which starts next month, waltzed off with comic legend Doddy’s gong when she was a teenager.

The TV presenter, 39, addressed The Sun’s story and her tap dancing days which culminated in her winning the prize aged 17 on ITV’s Lorraine.

She said: ‘I found it so funny when they said it was a fix that I did the tap dancing.

“When I was a little girl I did do dancing, but I didn’t want to wear a leotard in public.”

She went on: “When they asked me to do Strictly – I was hesitant – but my friends made me do it.

“Who else gets to go to work and get all dressed up!

“For me, I love the challenge and the learning and technically it is work and it’s really nice to work on a programme my mum and dad want to watch, they are so excited.”

Her remarks come after she told BBC Radio 5 Live: “People keep saying, ‘Can you dance?’ and I say, ‘No’ because isn’t it the point to learn to dance?”

But Helen is a trained tap dancer and won the The Ken Dodd Tap Dancing Award 22 years ago.

The Sun revealed her dancing past via an unearthed interview in 2016, when the ex-Blue Peter favourite said: “I won a Ken Dodd tap-dance award when I was 17.

“Not a lot of people know this, but I’m very good at tap dancing. People are often amazed I can tap dance.”

Helen signed up to the series after her marriage split from rugby league ace husband Richie Myler, 32, in April.