Kym Marsh shares heartbreaking inspiration behind 'Strictly Come Dancing' routine

Kym Marsh has shared the heartbreaking inspiration behind her Strictly Come Dancing routine this week, which paid tribute to her late son Archie.

The TV presenter and former Coronation Street star danced an American Smooth with partner Graziano Di Prima to Snow Patrol song 'Chasing Cars' and explained in a clip before the performance why it meant so much to her family.

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Marsh and her ex-husband Jamie Lomas lost baby son Archie, who was born 18 weeks early, shortly after his birth in 2009.

She said of dancing to 'Chasing Cars': "This is actually very special to us as a family because it reminds us of my son Archie.

"I gave birth to him prematurely and unfortunately he died shortly after he was born.

"I feel like by doing this dance not only is it going to be in memory of Archie but it also might hopefully get people talking about their own experiences, because it's the right road to putting your life back together."

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Marsh was holding back tears as she finished the dance and listened to the judges' comments.

Anton Du Beke told her: "There's nothing more difficult than dancing an emotional dance that means so much to you because you really want to make that connection with the audience. I think we all really appreciated that dance."

Talking to host Claudia Winkleman afterwards, Marsh said: "I made some silly mistakes that I hadn't made before but I think it was just the emotion of the evening that got to me."

She added to Di Prima: "Thank you so much, it really meant a lot to me to be able to dance that dance."

Marsh has recently spoken about suffering a panic attack in rehearsal and said that it has been something she has struggled with for years.

She told The Sun of the panic attack: "I went to pieces and said ‘I don’t think I can do this’. At that moment I wasn’t sure I could even carry on with the show."

Another contestant brought to tears by the emotion behind this week's dance was Will Mellor, who performed a Waltz to 'Three Times A Lady' by the Commodores - a song his late father used to sing to his mother.

He was shown calling his mother to tell her: "The routine is beautiful, it's going to be really emotional on the night.

"Hopefully with this dance I can pay my respects to my Dad."

Mellor was too overcome by emotion to say much after his performance, but his partner Nancy Xu said on his behalf: "We wanted to dedicate this dance to anyone who lost their loved ones and didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

Watch: Who is Strictly's Kym Marsh?