North East businesswoman Sara Davies has opened up about her appearance on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and made an admission about the connection between her family and dance partner on the show Aljaž Škorjanec.
The entrepreneur, who is one of the Dragons on Dragons Den and hails from Coundon, County Durham, has built her business empire from the ground up and has become one of the biggest names in business and television over the last few years.
Thanks to appearances in Dragons Den, Strictly Come Dancing and The Wedding Planner, all on the BBC, the business mogul has grown her profile considerably over that time frame.
Read more: Dragons’ Den's Sara Davies MBE to invest in Newton Aycliffe business
It was her appearance in Strictly Come Dancing, though, that projected her personality and family life into the public domain.
During an appearance on Kate Thornton’s Podcast White Wine Question Time on Friday (October 13), the businesswoman told the podcast host about the first time Aljaž came round to her house to meet the family - admitting that it was a 'daunting experience'.
Speaking on the podcast, she said: "He became a huge part of my life overnight, and he knew what he was doing that lad, and he was very considerate and careful in the way he did it.
"I can just remember the first week, it must’ve been a really big daunting thing for the whole family, my kids were nervous and didn't know what it meant.
"I can imagine my husband probably felt a bit nervous; probably a little bit threatened even; not that he'd ever say that, but you put yourself in those shoes."
While it was initially a worry, the Dragons Den star noted that the Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer and her husband got on really well and that Aljaž and his wife Janette Manrara now go on holiday with Sara and her husband.
She added: "I remember that first night I brought Aljaž home after we'd been dancing and I said, ‘Do you want to come back and have tea with us, we’ll pick the kids up from school?’.
"We picked the kids up from school, he had football cards for them, he was crawling around on the floor playing Lego with them, and then I heard one of them shout, ‘Oh, Daddy's back’, he'd seen Simon drive on the driveway.
FLASH SALE: £5 for 5 months on every new Premium Plus subscription until October 18
"Aljaž just said to me, ‘Any chance you can go and make yourself scarce for half an hour, take a long shower or something?’ And I thought, what on earth?
"Well, by the time I came out of the shower and had done the whole making myself scarce for half an hour, I found the two of them sitting on the sofa with the football on, with a beer in hand, chatting like they’d be mates for years while the kids were running around idolising the ground he walked on.
"He had my whole family eating out the palm of his hand."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here