Katherine Jenkins leads Dancing With the Stars

Katherine Jenkins leads Dancing With the Stars
Katherine Jenkins leads Dancing With the Stars (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Katherine Jenkins has spoken of her delight at her continuing success on US series Dancing With The Stars, but said: "I'm not taking anything for granted." The Welsh mezzo-soprano has topped the leaderboard twice on the show, which is based on the Strictly Come Dancing format. She told ITV1's Daybreak she was 'thrilled' to still be in the show, particularly as she is unfamiliar to US TV viewers. The 31-year-old said: "I'm very much a sort of new face to America, so considering it's half a public vote, I really didn't want to take anything for granted. But I'm thrilled to be going through to the next week." She said she had been surprised at the popularity of the programme, and how her life has changed. "I don't think I was quite prepared for what a massive show it is here and things have definitely changed. In the last few weeks people are coming up to me in restaurants and wanting to talk about jiving and all this, and paparazzi following, and yes, things are different now over here. "But I'm honestly just loving the dancing, we're having so much fun." Katherine, who split from TV presenter boyfriend Gethin Jones last year, denied she was dating dance partner Mark Ballas. "He has a girlfriend and I'm not ready. I'm not ready for any of that yet. I'm just going to concentrate on the dancing," she said. Martina Navratilova was the first star to be eliminated from the competition when she was voted off this week.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.