“She walked onto the Strictly stage… carrying a secret no one knew.”
Alex Kingston has moved viewers to tears after revealing that, behind the sequins and smiles of Strictly Come Dancing, she has been quietly continuing her battle with uterine cancer — a diagnosis that has changed her life in ways few ever imagined.
The 62-year-old actress has admitted that taking part in this year’s ballroom competition has made her feel “fearless”, even as she continues to process the emotional and physical toll of her cancer journey.
Just one year after undergoing treatment, Alex says Strictly has become far more than a television show — it has given her purpose, courage, and a reason to keep going.
Currently partnered with professional dancer Johannes Radebe, Alex was diagnosed in May last year and subsequently underwent a hysterectomy followed by radiation therapy. Despite the trauma, she chose to step into the spotlight once more — carrying a deeply personal secret that most viewers never knew.
Speaking candidly, Alex said that competing on the show has helped her reconnect with a younger, more fearless version of herself — a feeling she believed she had lost forever.
“I feel reborn,” she admitted, joking that her husband believes her “25-year-old body has come out of the closet.”
But behind the humour lies a story of resilience.
Alex revealed that she had been experiencing symptoms for some time but dismissed them as age-related — until a terrifying moment when she haemorrhaged on stage during a performance of The Other Boleyn Girl. It was only after finishing her theatre run that she sought medical help.
Doctors later confirmed the cancer was located in her fallopian tubes but had not spread to her ovaries — a diagnosis that, while devastating, allowed for swift intervention.
Despite the ordeal, Alex said the moment she woke from surgery she felt “like herself again” — something she hadn’t felt in years.
Her journey has also been shaped by long-standing fertility struggles. She previously underwent 13 rounds of IVF before welcoming her daughter Salome in 2001 and believes the hormonal treatments contributed to early perimenopause and long-term weight gain — challenges she says were never fully explained to her at the time.
Today, gratitude defines her outlook.
Alex says she feels lucky to be alive and refuses to waste a single day — a mindset that pushed her to accept Strictly’s invitation. As the oldest woman in this year’s line-up, she wanted to dance not just for herself, but “for women of a certain age”, proving life does not end at 60.
Training, she admitted, has been tougher than expected following her health struggles. But standing beside Johannes, she insisted that age is no barrier.
“After a certain age, you’re not dead below the knee,” she joked.
With the Strictly final approaching, Alex says she is taking each day as it comes — the same approach that helped her through radiation therapy. Dwelling on the past or worrying about the future is no longer part of her mindset.
Reflecting on everything she has endured, Alex now believes more strongly than ever that life is too short not to leap into the things that scare you.
And for her, Strictly has been the leap that brought her back to life.
