Anton Du Beke has shockingly revealed he was stabbed by his father as a child.
The Strictly Come Dancing judge detailed the harrowing event during his appearance on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories.
The professional dancer, who was born to a Spanish mother and Hungarian father, revealed he had spent three days in hospital after his father stabbed him in the stomach and leg one Boxing Day, while he was living at their Kent-based family home.
Anton detailed that he had discovered his passion for dancing after collecting his sister from the local studio.
His mother encouraged his hobby; however, his father Antal “took a turn” against him as he became consumed by alcoholism.
Speaking to Kate, Anton revealed: “The alcoholism and the violence… [it was] towards me, because I was a boy, a young man I suppose.”
“…You’ve got an alcoholic father and a situation where if you’re in the house [he’s] drinking then you end up with the fights and stuff. You’d move room to get away from all of it and then he follows you in and the next thing you know the violence starts and then it came to a head one evening, I ended up in hospital for three days.”
Fighting back tears, Anton continued: “I got stabbed, I’ve never said this out loud before.”
“I remember walking out of the house to walk up to the hospital, holding my leg, and a police car drove past and I waved him down and I said, ‘He’s in there with a knife’.”
The Strictly judge’s sister Veronica spoke about how their father Antal was against Anton’s dancing dreams, saying: “He used to call Anton gay and he took a turn against him. My dad’s drinking affected his mood – he was mean, he wasn’t a nice person when he was drunk.”
“My dad was drinking his money down the toilet, so what Mum did was work nights in a nursing home. So she wasn’t there to Âprotect us.”
Antal was cleared by police over the stabbing and later divorced Anton’s mother.
The professional dancer eventually moved out of their Kent home and changed his name from Anthony Beke to Anton Du Beke.
“I wanted a new start and a new beginning and I wanted to leave what went before behind and then move on” the Strictly judge admitted. “I just wanted to be me. I started with Anton Du Beke and I went from there really.”
Antal died back in 2001, and Anton decided not to attend his funeral.
However, Anton remains close with his mother and sister.
The professional dancer admitted: “I don’t think about him. I never give him a second thought. It does not influence me at all.”
“I hate the thought that anything like that defines you. I hate ‘Woe is me’. My motivation to do what I did wasn’t because of that, it’s because I wanted to do it.”
“And there’s only one way to do it, which is to be the best at it.”
