Strictly Come Dancing star Tyler West has opened up about a harrowing experience from his childhood that left him "traumatised". Reflecting on his life before finding fame as a presenter, the 30-year-old recalled being a "shy" teenager who "struggled mentally" and would frequently shut himself away.
A Turning Point at 14
When asked what encouraged him to break out of his shell, he told The Metro: "I witnessed a murder outside my house when I was 14 and that was traumatising. But suddenly there was this moment where I was like, 'I can't stay in this environment any more'.
"I started playing handball, then from handball, CBBC interviewed the team during a training session and that was my first time saying anything on camera."
Recalling the Incident on a Podcast
This isn't the first occasion Tyler has spoken about the terrifying incident he witnessed. Appearing on Pete Wicks' Man Made podcast, he struggled to hold back tears as he recalled: "I'm panicking over here because I saw the men coming back out and then they're trying to put the body in a bag.
"And it was, it was horrible. It just went on for like, I think in total, the phone call to the police was just over 10 minutes and still nobody had arrived by this point. And then the two men had gone back into the flat and we'd gone out there, me and my mum, and my mum's trying to put the towels on the wounds, I'm standing over this man's body. And I just, I was in hysterics. I was like, I was in shock," he continued.
"I couldn't feel the tears running down my face. You know when something's hurting you that bad and you can't comprehend what's actually happening. That was one of, and I didn't know it at the time, but I never knew that that would be something that changed the course of my life forever."
Career Since the Incident
Since then, Tyler has carved out a thriving career in television and radio, kicking things off as a presenter on CBBC. He is also a familiar face on Lorraine and currently co-hosts Strictly: Lights Up alongside Abi Clarke. The show whisks viewers straight to the Strictly dance floor for instant reactions from the evening's eliminated couple and their dance-off rivals, as well as the judges, hosts, fellow Strictly stars and studio guests.
In 2022, Tyler took part in Strictly Come Dancing, where he was paired up with Dianne Buswell. Last year, he and his fiancée Mollie Rainford took on Celebrity Race Across the World, covering 5,900km across Central and South America from Isla Mujeres in Mexico to the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia. Despite pulling out all the stops to cross the finish line first, the series was ultimately claimed by Roman Kemp and his sister Harleymoon.
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday at 6.25pm on BBC One.
