Annabel Croft has credited Strictly Come Dancing for ‘giving her a reason’ during an ‘incredibly dark time’ in her life.
The former tennis player, 57, lost her husband, Mel Coleman, and father to their three children Charlie, Amber and Lilly, earlier this year, aged 60, a few weeks after he was diagnosed with stage three cancer.
Appearing on Friday’s Good Morning Britain, Annabel was joined by her professional partner Johannes Radebe, 36, as they discussed their time on the BBC ballroom dance contest.
Praising the show, she said: ‘Every time I get to go the studio I am so grateful. It’s come at such an incredibly dark time in my life. I don’t where I would be without it.
‘I always said that I never really knew grief. I had no concept of it. It’s given me a reason to be able to get up in a morning and have purpose rather than just sobbing at home, which does still happen sometimes.’
Hope: Annabel Croft, 57, has credited Strictly Come Dancing for ‘giving her a reason’ during an ‘incredibly dark time’ in her life (pictured with professional partner Johannes Radebe)
Annabel added: ‘It’s about being able to use your body to get things out is so incredible.
‘Normally, I am a runner but dancing just gives you that buzz. I think I’m fitter than I ever have been. I feel more supple than I ever have.’
Former America’s Cup yachtsman Mel passed away just two months after he started complaining of stomach pain.
And Annabel recently told Lorraine Kelly during an appearance on her ITV1 show how dancing has helped her rest her brain from ‘thinking too many dark thoughts’.
She said: ‘It’s been a nice distraction from grief.
‘It’s been nice to do something joyful and use my body and try to rest my brain from thinking too many dark thoughts.’
The radio presenter previously revealed she was in a dark place following Mel’s passing and she cried every day in the weeks following the loss.
Before Strictly, she said she hoped the gruelling training schedule would help take her mind off the heartache and help her ‘find some joyfulness’.
Devastating: The former tennis player lost her husband, Mel Coleman earlier this year, aged 60, a few weeks after he was diagnosed with stage three cancer (pictured in June 2021)
Support: Appearing on Friday’s GMB, Annabel was joined by her professional partner Johannes Radebe , 36, as they discussed their time on the BBC show
Amazing: Praising the show, she said: ‘Every time I get to go the studio I am so grateful. It’s come at such an incredibly dark time in my life. I don’t where I would be without it’
Since being on the show, Annabel has revealed that her spirits are higher and the competition has allowed her to get stuck into a new challenge.
Annabel said her Strictly partner Johannes is ‘the most amazing human being’ as she applauded his kindness and patience.
Annabel said: ‘I have struck gold. Johannes is just the most amazing human being.
‘You have the most amazing energy, incredible kindness and patience. You are an unbelievable dancer, but also an unbelievable teacher.’
But her time on the dancefloor will be bittersweet without her husband of 31 years there to cheer her on.
‘He always loved the show and he used to cry watching it,’ she said previously. ‘So I’m completely heartbroken that he’s not here to watch with me.’
Just weeks after Mel’s death, Annabel was bravely back at work, conducting post-match interviews as part of the BBC’s coverage of the Wimbledon finals and overseeing the ceremony in which winners Marketa Vondrousova and Carlos Alcaraz received their trophies.
Mel, a successful investment banker who took part in the America’s Cup and more recently ran a tennis school with his wife, was noted for his apparently perfect health and, like Annabel, enjoyed an active outdoors lifestyle.
After Covid lockdowns, the two of them converted an old delivery van into a mobile home and took it around the country and into Europe on walking holidays.
Shortly after he died, Annabel said: ‘My beloved husband Mel passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a short battle with cancer.
‘My family and I are completely heartbroken and ask for privacy at this very sad time.’
Earlier this year Annabel, a former British number one, recalled that her path crossed with Mel’s quite by chance when she was at a crisis point.
Aged 21, she was at the US Open having a pep talk from fellow player John Newcombe, who suggested that she should think about what she wanted to do with her life as she seemed unhappy.
She had been on the tennis tour for nearly six years and was lonely, stressed and lost by the demands of incessantly competing.
Performing: ‘It’s given me a reason to be able to get up in a morning and have purpose rather than just sobbing at home, which does still happen sometimes,’ she said
Long-term love: The couple pictured together in 1996 – their paths crossed quite by chance when Annabel was at a crisis point in her life
Tough time: Annabel had been on the tennis tour for nearly six years and was lonely, stressed and lost by the demands of competing when she met Mel – Pictured: At Wimbledon in 1987
‘As we were having this chat, I got a text from my mother saying the BBC production office in Belfast were asking whether I’d be interested in filming a programme about yacht racing.
‘I’d never been on a yacht before, but it ended up with me, Eamonn Holmes and Peter Skellern going off to Guernsey to shoot a programme where we learnt how to race a yacht.
‘Mel, who had just got back from after the America’s Cup, was one of the yachtsmen and that is how we met.
‘After a day’s filming we’d all go to the pub, have dinner – it sounds weird, but I’d never really done that – and I remember thinking, gosh this is really fun and normal, and I want a bit more of this rather than getting up and putting on a tracksuit and stressing about whether my backhand is working today.’ They married six years later.