Strictly judge Anton Du Beke reveals his father stabbed him, and he was so 'embarrassed' he blamed a torn HAMSTRING

Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke, 60, was stabbed in the leg and stomach by his alcoholic father on Boxing Day when Du Beke was in his mid-twenties, he reveals in his new autobiography 'Steps in Time'. So ashamed was he that he told people he had torn a hamstring to hide what had happened. He staggered into the street before neighbours rushed him to hospital, where he spent four days recovering.

His father, Antal Xavier Beke, a Hungarian waiter who had fled the 1956 revolution, was described by Du Beke as a violent alcoholic who attacked him while he was on the phone to his dance teacher.

Du Beke says he 'never laid eyes' on his father again after the attack, and does not know if Antal was ever charged; the incident led to his parents' divorce.

'I don't want people to give me sympathy — it's not the defining moment of my life,' Du Beke writes, adding that he prefers to 'laugh off' the trauma rather than dwell on it.