I’m A Celebrity campmate Harry Redknapp has revealed he signed up for this year’s Strictly but pulled out fearing he’d be the “novelty act”.
The ex-football manager withdrew from the show and instead chose ITV’s jungle because he didn’t want to be the next Ed Balls.
He told The Sun he would have been competing in BBC1’s ballroom only for “fun value” and had no chance of winning the Glitterball Trophy.
Read more: Harry Redknapp branded “wuss” by I’m A Celebrity star
“I was going to do Strictly this year. I actually had a trial with one of the professionals who came round my house, she was fantastic, but after I trod on her toes about five times I realised I wasn’t a very good dancer,” he told the paper.
“I see people on there and they’re fantastic, half of them are ex-dancers, doing dancing shows in the West End. What chance have I got dancing with them?
Read more: Harry Redknapp has big advantage over his I’m A Celebrity campmates
“There’s always someone who’s there for fun value like Ed Balls. He was great when he did the Gangnam style, I loved that. That’s all I could have been, someone to laugh at. But it wasn’t for me.”
Asked whether he might have succumbed to the Strictly “curse”, following the end of his son Jamie’s marriage to Louise Redknapp, the 71-year-old laughed off the suggestion.
Ed Balls gained millions of fans with his dance skills on Strictly Come Dancing two years ago.
Harry is earning a reported £500,000 to join I’m A Celebrity and will be the oldest person in the jungle.
Yet that makes him only the second highest paid 2018 campmate, behind Noel Edmonds who is receiving £600,000.
Harry called the impending experience a “great adventure” and also spoke of the importance of living healthily into his senior years.
Fellow former football manager Glenn Hoddle is recovering from a heart attack, having collapsed in a TV studio earlier this month.
* Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC1 at 6.45pm tonight. I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! starts at 9pm tomorrow.
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