NICK Knowles is the latest Strictly signing to be revealed - and it appears he's motivated by more than just the Glitterball prize. We announced last night how the popular DIY SOS host, 61, has put pen to paper with the under fire BBC show. While he's a big fan of the show and always open to a challenge, there's another factor behind the decision to take part.
Speaking in an unpublished interview from last year, the TV star admitted he was keen to shift some timber after putting on weight during lockdown. And what better way to lighten the load than by competing in the most gruelling of entertainment shows. He said: "I must have put on about 3 stone.
At my heaviest, I was around 19 stone and I’m back down to about 17 stone. So I'm about half a stone over where I want to be. But I'm a big unit anyway.
I'm 6ft 2 and I’ve got a 50-inch chest!” READ MORE ON STRICTLY Nick's brush with the virus happened at the start of the pandemic back in 2020 and took him the best part of a year to recover. "I was literally wiped out," he said. "I had just no energy and felt like I was operating on about 50 to 60% of my normal amount of energy and getting out of breath easily.
"I had about a year where I was heavily overweight but I had to be gentle with myself when I had the long Covid because it's a viral thing and you can't just fight against it. You have to wait until your body is ready to recover. "But I also understood that if I were patient and waited, there would come a time when I.