Laila: 'I want to win Strictly for my girl'

Laila: 'I want to win Strictly for my girl'
Laila: 'I want to win Strictly for my girl' (Image credit: BBC)

Strictly Come Dancing star Laila Rouass has revealed that she wants to do well on the show for her daughter. The Footballer’s Wives actress told The Mirror: "I'm training so much I'm losing time with my daughter and I don't want that to be for nothing. "When I signed up, I really wanted to win, but now I'm happy just to get through each week. You start off thinking it's only a dance competition, but then you realise people are paying to vote for you. Laila added that her two-year-old daughter Inez gives her dancing tips: "She says: 'Come on Mummy, one, two, cha-cha-cha'". The actress has been performing with professional dancer Anton du Beke. She said: "I'm lucky to be paired with the king of ballroom, but that's not to say we get on all the time, you don't even manage that with your husband or best friend. "Anton and I put in the most hours last week, but I find it so difficult to go out and be like 'Hey, I'm a sexpot'. At home I'm just a mum with food down her top!" Freesat viewers can now watch Strictly in HD for free.

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.