Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has revealed why he chose to step away from a lucrative pantomime career, prioritising Christmas at home with his wife Hannah and their nine-year-old twins George and Henrietta.
While fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood has performed in pantomime every Christmas for 20 years, Du Beke said his children are “too young” for him to be away during the festive period. Speaking on the Judgemental podcast, he told co-host Horwood that he asked producer Michael Harrison to allow him to “step away” from what had become an annual tradition.
Demanding Work and Family Priorities
Du Beke recalled: “I did three years in a row … two shows a day, six days a week. So it's 12 shows. You arrive in the morning and then you're there all day. The only days we got off were Christmas Day and New Year's Day. So Christmas was a bit of a write-off, a date children are too young for that.”
He told Horwood: “I said to Michael, who we both worked for, 'Would you mind if I stepped away for a while?' And he said, 'Yes, don't worry, we understand.'” Du Beke said he “enjoyed the process” and would likely return to pantomime in the future. Horwood, meanwhile, said he had been involved in panto for more than 20 years.
Financial Sacrifice and IVF Journey
Panto can be highly lucrative: This Morning’s Alison Hammond reportedly earned £195,000 for her role as a Magic Mermaid in Birmingham’s production of Peter Pan, and Du Beke reportedly earned around £100,000 for a three-week stint as The Wicked Queen in Snow White in Southampton in 2015. Despite the money, Du Beke is not tempted and will spend Christmas at home.
Du Beke’s wife Hannah faced difficulties conceiving due to endometriosis. Speaking on Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, he said: “I knew I wanted to be with her, I saw her with her nephews. She's so kind and so caring, I just couldn't understand the universe.”
He added: “Whoever is upstairs, if anyone's upstairs, looking down and going, 'You are the most perfect person to have children, but I'm not going to let you have any children because I'm going to give you this.' And I'm going to say, 'You're going to have this endometriosis, and you're going to suffer with this all of your life, chronically, and I'm not going to let you have any children.' I thought that was peculiar, cruel, and inexplicable and unforgivable.”
Emotional Toll of IVF
Du Beke described the distress of watching Hannah undergo treatment: “She has these injections and the bruises in the bum, in the thigh, in the stomach. And you're trying to help but what can you do? Whatever you want, tell me and I'll do it but that's all you have and it's horrendous as a man to watch it. You feel so inadequate and you want to do so much more but I can't do anything. And that's why you girls are so extraordinary, you're extraordinary that you do all this stuff.”
