Yahoo News Strictly Come Dancing Shayne Ward's 'love' for Responder star and emotional reason for doing show
Shayne Ward is excited to get started on this season of Strictly Come Dancing. It will be revealed who the former X Factor winner will be partnered up with on tonight's special launch episode.
The former Coronation Street star's participation in the next race for the Glitterball was confirmed on an episode of Lorraine last month. Shayne appeared on Loose Women this week and said he previously turned down taking part on Strictly. However, he revealed the emotional reason why he has changed his mind as he explained how fatherhood changed him.
The 39-year-old said: "I always felt in myself that I wasn’t good enough to do it. I don't know why because we dance around and joke. I dance with my children every day but I kind of feel now that I’ve got kids, I see everything through completely different eyes and a different perspective.
“Everything I do now, they’re at the pinnacle, so everything I do now is to show them what daddy can do and still does. Now that I’m doing the show, it’s like Willow, Reign I’m going to do this for you.”
READ MORE: 10 Merseyside Strictly Come Dancing stars and where they placed
Shayne shares two children with his partner, Sophie Austin, who played Lindsey Butterfield in Hollyoaks from 2013 to 2016. Shayne took to Instagram last week to issue a heartfelt tribute to mark their nine year anniversary.
He said: "Another year has gone by…. And I love you more each and every second. I’m feel very blessed to have you by my side. Let’s keep holding hands.
"Let’s keep walking in each others footsteps. Let’s keep finding new adventures. Let’s keep singing. Let’s taste the world's greatest foods (That’ll be fajitas for me).
"Lets dance like no one is watching, But certain eyes always are. Our heaven sent angels Willow May and Reign. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it. My best friend for the last 9 years."
Before he met Sophie, Shayne was previously in a relationship with star of The Responder, Faye McKeever. The former couple had been together before Shayne shot to stardom when he won the X Factor in 2005.
The couple got engaged in 2012, but announced their split two years later in 2014. Addressing the split at the time, Shayne admitted the two grew apart as he said: "Faye’s a great girl and it’s unfortunate that we have split up. It was hard to deal with. I still absolutely love her to bits.”
According to our sister site, Mirror Online, he added: "It’s a lot pressure. Having a relationship in this industry is hard. Faye handled it really well, but unfortunately it came to an end. We just grew apart.
“Faye and her family will always be part of my extended family. We’re still friends. We were together for so long and I would be devastated if weren’t. I wanted to keep it amicable, and so did she. I’m probably taking a leaf out of Simon’s book - he keeps all his exes with him, doesn’t he?”
Faye is originally from Manchester but has regularly been cast in shows filmed in Liverpool such as Time and Little Boy Blue. She recently won acclaim for her portrayal of Jodie in the hit show, The Responder. The TV star spoke to the ECHO at a special screening of the second season and said she always loves filming in the region, which she branded her "second home".
She said: "It really is the people, the vibe of the city, the architecture of the city. Everything about it is brilliant. My Scouse friends say I'm an adopted Scouser, which I'll take."
Faye adopts a Scouse accent for the role and says the key to getting it right is because she understands how important it is to Liverpudlians that it sounds authentic. She said: "I have a lot of Scouse friends that I call upon and I ask, 'can you just make sure that I've got this to a tee? It's pressure and I think I need to do this right."
Faye joked: "It's hard to do a Scouse accent because the pressure is on. All the Scousers are like 'She's a wool'." Faye said "wool" is her favourite bit of Liverpudlian slang and said her knowledge of how we speak means she feels at home in the region.
She said: "I've dated a few Scousers in my time so I know all the slang. Like webs. It's like cockney slang and that familiarity of when you come to a city and know all of its slang. I just think, 'Oh I'm one of you now".
