New Wave icon Toyah Willcox has been performing on stage and screen for over 50 years – and now she’s part of the Strictly Come Dancing 2024 line-up!
Birmingham-born Toyah, 66, charted with hits like It’s A Mystery, I Want to Be Free and Brave New World in the early 1980s.
She’s had 13 top 40 singles in total, and recorded 25 albums. Plus, she written two books, appeared in more than 40 stage plays, acted in more than 20 feature films, and presented on TV… including for Homes Under the Hammer!
But appearing on Strictly seems to be an entirely new challenge for the post-punk star.
“Wow! Strictly Come Dancing, can you believe it?!” she said.
“This is going to be a wild and wonderful ride, and I’m here for every sparkly second. I’m used to performing for big crowds but this is completely fresh for me, how I will do, it’s a mystery… I just want to get cracking and learn some dance routines now!”
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Toyah Willcox’s height makes her a tiny Strictly dancer
Toyah is 5ft tall, according to online sources.
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Secret to Toyah Willcox and husband Robert’s happy marriage
Toyah married King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp in 1986.
She’s previously observed that, before the Covid lockdown, they may have only spent eight weeks a year together due to their respective touring schedules.
However, in 2016, she reflected on her marriage: “We’re successful because we’re both independent and I’m wealthier than him. If I wasn’t, I really wouldn’t be able to handle it and he likes that.
“We did our wills yesterday and he was told he would inherit everything from me without being taxed if I die before I’m 75 and his eyes lit up. We laugh a lot and we’re best friends.”
On her decision not to have children
Toyah and Robert do not have any kids together.
She told The Guardian in 2013: “We don’t have any children and I’ve never wanted family life. I’ve probably inherited a feeling of being trapped in family life.”
Toyah added: “I never had any maternal instinct and it always baffled me why I was expected to have children.”
She’s also said of not being a parent: “We don’t have children, we never even considered having children. Hats off to those people who do because that commitment is extraordinary. I think with us we’ve managed to remain unique and independent as well as being a couple.”
Toyah added: “We both travel the world independently of each other working, and we come back together because we want to. There’s always a freshness in our marriage.”
Where Strictly star Toyah Willcox lives
Toyah has a house in Worcestershire, which fans have grabbed glimpses of in Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch YouTube series.
However, Toyah has previously voiced fears her home is haunted.
She revealed on Loose Women in 2023 that a resident ghost called George can be a problematic.
Toyah said: “George has never bothered me but he’s attacked my hairdresser, he’s attacked friends at dinner parties. I’ve never been afraid.
“My make-up artist came into the house and George was effing and blinding and telling him to get out and my make-up artist was like: ‘Who was that?’And I told him I was alone in the house. He was woken up from a slumber by the ghost.
“We have had three exorcisms in the house.”
Toyah Willcox on having surgery
According to reports, Toyah was born with a twisted spine, foot problems and no hip sockets. She is said to have undergone years of surgery and physiotherapy.
She’s said: “No, I didn’t have a particularly healthy childhood. It was challenging, but by my teens, physically, I’d pretty much been sorted and I’m 100% fit these days — but I am very careful about posture and weight and the pressure I put on my body.”
Additionally, Toyah has also spoken about having a cosmetic op.
Surgery goes hand-in-hand with the entertainment industry.
She said in 2009: “Surgery goes hand-in-hand with the entertainment industry. Looking good is rightly or wrongly a requirement [for men and women], but I do think people in the public eye should be open about it.
“Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the entertainment business gets something done at some point in their careers. It’s just ridiculous when stars deny it and say their youthful appearance is down to good genes.”
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Strictly star Toyah on her ‘facelift’
Writing in her 2005 book Diary of a Facelift, Toyah reportedly explained why she went under the knife following her appearance on I’m A Celebrity.
She’d come in for unpleasant remarks about her appearance from some commentators.
“[It was] said I looked so awful that I shouldn’t be allowed to be seen on television, and that male tabloid writers backed up this view. The worst thing was that, secretly, I agreed with them.”
And so Toyah reportedly paid a surgeon in Paris £7,500 to give her a “lower lift”.
She reflected: “The reality of it all hit me hard, but the unavoidable truth is that, if you want to look better, your skin has to be cut.”
However, Toyah denies having had Botox.
Toyah’s previously claimed British film companies include ‘no Botox’ clauses in contracts as it can restrict facial expressions.
However, she teased in 2016: “Of course, you can do it without people knowing that you’ve done it. I actually think there are some very clever actresses out there who have been fixed and you can’t tell. But increasingly, I see American actresses who can’t move.”
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Strictly Come Dancing starts on BBC One on Saturday September 14 at 7.20pm.
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