Tess Daly has shared her heartbreak over her father's tragic death, revealing he never got the chance to see her on Strictly Come Dancing. In a 2010 interview, Tess opened up about her parents Sylvia and Vivian, confessing that dealing with her father's death seven years earlier was "so difficult".
Tess' dad Vivian sadly passed away from emphysema in 2003 while she was on honeymoon with husband Vernon Kay, just 18 days after their wedding. Emphysema, as defined by the NHS, is a condition where the air sacs in the lungs are damaged. "I miss him terribly because he was just such a strong role model in my life," she told The Guardian. "The man by whom I judged all others, really, because he was such an honourable and moral person who would never harm another being."
Tess, 55, also revealed her biggest regret - that her father never got to meet his grandchildren. Describing her father, she said: "Just a positive, outgoing... a great guy really and a brilliant father and I do really wish he could have met his grandchildren. That's my greatest regret, that he never met his grandchildren," reports OK!.
In a 2020 interview with the Daily Mail, Tess, mum to Phoebe, 19, and Amber, 14, discussed juggling Strictly Come Dancing with motherhood. She was pregnant with her first child during the filming of the show's first series and returned to the second half of the second series just six weeks after giving birth. Tess opened up about her personal heartache, revealing, "My dad had died the previous year. He never got to meet my children – which is my biggest regret, he would've loved them," and added, "But he never got to see me do Strictly either, and he would have been so proud. He loved Bruce Forsyth. He adored ballroom, all of it."
Tess has been a staple on our TV screens since she began presenting Strictly Come Dancing in 2004. Meanwhile, her husband Vernon Kay is making waves with his mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2. In a candid chat with OK! in 2022, Vernon shared insights into why he's never strutted his stuff on the dance floor: "I've never been asked, to be honest with you," he confessed. When probed if it could be due to Tess hosting the show, he added, "I never thought of that," and continued, "I'm good friends with many of them, I play golf with Anton. So maybe that is why they haven't asked me. I do enjoy the process of getting to know the dancers, I enjoy watching their rehearsal tapes and I enjoy sitting down with Tess and watching It Takes Two."