Strictly piles on pounds for Clancy

Abbey Clancy has revealed has managed to put on weight despite her intense training schedule for Strictly Come Dancing.

The model is one of four female finalists in Saturday’s show along with BBC Breakfast host Susanna Reid, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor and former Coronation Street actress Natalie Gumede.

Abbey said she had put on “about half a stone” and blamed it on the diet of takeaways she needed to fuel her training.

She said: “I’m heavier, but no boobs and I’ve got a six pack. It’s so intense, all this training, you have to eat all the time and we’ve got a Nando’s on one corner and a McDonald’s on the other, which helps”.

Abbey, who is married to Stoke City footballer Peter Crouch, said she had to be talked into doing the show by celebrity friends including Kelly Brook and 2011 winner Harry Judd.

She said: “I couldn’t think of anything worse than doing something you can’t do in front of millions of people.”

Meanwhile, BBC presenter Susanna – who is favourite to win the show – has admitted taking choreography tips from her children ahead of Saturday’s final.

She said her three sons had helped by pretending to be judges and score her routines with dance partner Kevin Clifton.

Susanna said: “They’ve loved Strictly. They always watch, they’re always commenting on it, they’re telling me about my dancing, they talk to Kevin about the choreography.”

Kevin, who is in his first year as one of the show’s main dancers, said: “They’ve come in and looked at the routine and gone ‘You know it just needs a bit of a highlight there in the middle’ and I’ve looked at it and gone ‘Do you know what, I think you’re right’, and actually changed some bits of the choreography.”

Susanna said she was delighted that her sons, two of whom take dance lessons, had a role model in Clifton.

She said: “I think it’s really good for them to see me doing something completely different and for them to meet Kevin and be inspired by a man who dances which is for my three boys a fantastic role model for them.”

Strictly piles on pounds for Clancy