Tess Daly
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Strictly Come Dancing: Tess Daly reveals real first name ahead of live show

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Strictly host Tess Daly once shocked fans by revealing that she isn’t using her real name.

Tess, 51, says that her mother is the only person who now uses the name she was given at birth.

Tess Daly Strictly Credit: BBC
Tess Daly has revealed she has a real first name (Credit: BBC)

What is the real name of Strictly star Tess Daly?

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Tess revealed that she used to be called Helen but changed her name in her teens.

After signing with a modelling agency when she was 17, Tess discovered there was another model on the books with the name Helen Davies.

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It was then that she was told to change it to avoid confusion.

But despite the change, she refuses to change it officially because it would be “disrespectful” to her parents.

Tess Daly smiles as she reveals her real first name
Tess had to change her name because of a clash at a modelling agency (Credit: Tony Clark / SplashNews.com)

What did Tess say about the name change?

“My agent was obsessed with [the actress] Nastassja Kinski at the time, who was in the film Tess, and thought I looked like her,” she said.

“So Tess it was. I was gullible and impressionable.

“Mind you, two weeks later I was in Japan, then travelled the world. Paris, Milan, New York.”

As her modelling career took off, Tess married TV star Vernon Kay in 2003 under her real name.

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Secret to their happy marriage

TV presenter Vernon previously revealed that there’s a very simple reason they have managed to remain happily together for such a long period of time.

And it turns out communication is the key.

“There’s no secret,” he told The Mirror in January. “No kind of golden highway.

“The key is – and I know this sounds really lame – keep talking. Communication is the key to everything.”

The popular This Morning presenter also went on to joke that gorgeous Tess is the one that wears the trousers in the relationship.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor