Strictly star ‘nearly froze to death’ after getting stuck on mountain
It called the incident 'humiliating'.
Anton Du Beke has detailed a chilling experience getting stuck while trying to scale a snowy mountain.
The Strictly Come Dancing judge, 58, was on a holiday with his wife Hannah and young children –twins George and Henrietta – when he made the fateful decision to skip skiing with them.
During the recent half-term break, Anton’s family travelled to France to visit a friend. However, a few years ago when he joined them, things went awry.
‘I don’t ski so I just went along. It’s a horrible holiday to go along on if you don’t ski,’ he recalled on the latest episode of his Putt & Strut podcast.
‘I have no interest and I’m so fearful of the old pins,’ he said of the sport.
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But after ‘wandering down’ the mountain Anton found himself in a spot of bother after ending up in waist-deep snow and getting stuck.
Anton Du Beke said the experience was ‘humiliating’ and he ‘froze to death’ (Picture: ITV)‘They went up the ski lift back up to the top. Not that far, maybe a few hundred metres,’ he said.
‘And I thought “I won’t get on the thing, I’ll have a wander – I’ll walk up”, the chair lift. I said, “I won’t take that, I’ll walk up”.
‘And you might ask why, bearing in mind I hadn’t got the gear on. I think I had a pair of jeans on. I had a snowshoe, just like a tennis racket on the bottom of the shoes, just like a normal trainer really but you can walk on slippery surfaces with it, but you can’t walk in waist deep snow in them.’
He continued: ‘I suddenly started walking up this bit that they weren’t skiing on, and it was snow. But snow, snow – waist deep snow. I got halfway up, and I got a bit stuck. I was like “This is so embarrassing”. I’ve walked up a hill of snow – everybody else is skiing in all the gear.’
He decided to stay home recently when his family – wife Hannah Summers, and their children George and Henrietta – went skiing again (Picture: PA)Anton then joked he ‘looked like some bloke who got completely lost somewhere else and just wandered into an absolute idiot’.
‘I had visions of me being rescued on the side of this hill. It was so humiliating.’
However, Anton managed to continue the ascent.
‘I forced myself to walk up. I froze to death, I was wet – one of the most humiliating things ever. There were literally people skiing past me and going “what are you doing?”.’
Anton recently lost £15,000 when appearing on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Picture: ITV)Following the near-miss, Anton said he decided to sit out the family’s recent ski trip.
The professional dancer and TV star also had another equally embarrassing moment recently after losing £15,000.
While appearing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Anton pledged to donate his own money to a chosen charity should he get a question wrong.
However, after failing to answer a musical-related question he committed to donating his own funds, rather than the prize money, to The Sick Children’s Trust.
Strictly Come Dancing is streaming on BBC iPlayer.
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