Strictly Come Dancing host Tess Daly has revealed that she saw Sir Bruce Forsyth a few months before he died. She visited him at his home on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey.
“I told him, ‘I love you, Brucie,'” she told Fabulous magazine. “And that was it. So I do feel I got to say what I wanted before, and you know, he was doing really well.
“Bruce was so physically fit. He never complained of aches or pains,” she added. “That’s why he was so wiry and slim because he was constantly moving and dancing, and sharp as a tack.
“It’s hard to believe he’s gone,” she said. Bruce died in August aged 89.
Bruce and Tess had a close friendship off set – and Bruce regarded Tess’s daughters Phoebe, 12, and Amber, eight, like grandchildren.
“When I broke the news to the girls they were so upset,” she said.
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Tess’s husband Vernon Kay was also friends with Bruce, often joining him to play golf.
Tess was moved to tears at this year’s Strictly launch show when the professional dancers performed a routine to Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon as a tribute to Bruce.
“What a routine,” she said. “He would have loved that.”
The launch show also showed a filmed tribute to Bruce, with Strictly stars Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Anton du Beke being among those sharing their memories.
“Bruce Forsyth was the ultimate entertainer,” said Len in the clip.
Claudia Winkleman also had fond memories of Bruce. “He was a legend to so many people but to us at Strictly he was just Brucie and it was his hard work, dedication and professionalism that made the show what it is today,” she said.
“And to put it in his own words, didn’t he do well?”
Added Tess: “For entertaining the nation, with every joke, song and dance – thank you.
“Brucie partner – we’ll miss you.”