TV sensation Annabel Croft has admitted that Strictly Come Dancing "saved her" after the heartbreaking loss of her husband.

The former tennis player's other half, Mel Coleman,died in May 2023 after a short battle with stomach cancer. The couple got married in 1993 when he, a professional yachtsman, introduced her to sailing for a television project.

Annabel, 58, was devastated, their dreams of retirement and downsizing in southwest London shattered. However, it was her participation in Strictly Come Dancing that helped the 1985 San Diego Open victor navigate through grief.

In her conversation with The Telegraph this week, the distinguished TV and radio presenter revealed: "I don't know what I would have done without being busy. I would have sunk... Literally within a few weeks [of losing him] I was on the phone to my agent. He said, 'I've signed you up to Strictly. You're giving an interview tomorrow because they are announcing it'."

Post-Strictly, where she clinched fourth place, Annabel found the intensity of her sorrow had eased. She poignantly reflected, highlighting it now "comes in rain showers but they are getting less and then it's gone", and acknowledging the strength of her marriage only afterwards: "I didn't know I had an incredible marriage, but I did."

Now, Annabel is a pundit on tennis coverage across Eurosport, Sky Sports and the BBC and she is also expecting her first grandchild as her oldest daughter Amber Rose is pregnant, reports Mirror reports.

Two years after originally planning to downsize with Mel, presenter Annabel is on the move within London, seeking a new home near the River Thames to honour Mel's aspirations of living close to the water.

"There is so much to be positive about. I don't want to be a professional widow. I understand that a lot of people can identify with what I've been through, but I don't want grief to define me," Annabel, who won Celebrity Wrestling on ITV in 2005, said.

"Strictly was so helpful to me. I realised how much I loved dancing and I've wondered whether I went down the wrong path [with tennis] when I might have been a dancer instead."

During her stint on Strictly, Annabel and dance partner Johannes Radebe struck up an immediate and enduring friendship. Furthermore, she slyly suggested, "He's part of the family now. We are bonded for life."

The former tennis sensation, who hung up her racquet aged just 21 in 1988, will embark on a speaking tour from September 25 across Britain to share insights into her remarkable sporting life and the profoundly personal journey she has undergone of late.