Strictly Come Dancing star Ed Balls reveals his MP wife Yvette Cooper is left ‘thrilled’ by his new slimline body
Ed Balls has shed more than a stone since taking to the Strictly dance floor with partner Katya - but don't expect another split
ED BALLS has side-stepped the “Strictly Curse” — as his MP wife loves how the dancing is getting him in shape.
After just five weeks, the former .
Teased over whether Yvette Cooper fancies the slimmer, fitter husband more, he told The Sun: “Yes, and one who has got a few moves! That’s why I keep saying to her, ‘Embrace my rumba!’ It’s the dance of love.”
Yvette, his wife of 18 years, will be keeping her fingers crossed that he stays in the contest to keep the pounds dropping off.
Ed, 49, said: “It’s one of the main reasons, other than having a good time. Every day I say, ‘What do you think?’ and she says, ‘Oh yes it’s making a difference.’
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“You just change shape. I’ve now done eight hours a day for five weeks so you tone up.”
The so-called “curse” has seen chemistry between partners break up several relationships. But Ed has no such worries with Russian-born Katya Jones, 22.
He said: “Yvette is fine with me dancing with Katya.
“She knows that Katya has a very lovely, professional, highly qualified dancer husband called Neil on the professional team who is half my age and she kind of thinks, ‘In your dreams pal’.
“I’d be much more worried if she was learning from Neil!”
Ed has won fans over with his enthusiastic dad-dancing and last week donned green face paint and a yellow suit for a samba inspired by Jim Carrey movie The Mask.
Tonight he will try to camp things up further with a paso doble to Bonnie Tyler ballad Holding Out For A Hero — while wearing with a “very swishy” cape and having had his first ever spray tan.
He practised by showing us some of his new skills backstage, then laughed: “Maybe if I get to the final I’ll do it in a sequinned string vest. But I don’t think that will happen so it’s OK, this is so safe.”
Ed believes Yvette would have more chance of victory. He said: “She did tap and ballet at school so she’s already good.
“Yvette is deeply envious, she tries to make me practise with her at home. She has always thought we should do dancing.
“On a cruise ship about 12 or so years ago we did an hour of foxtrot. Then about five years ago we were in Italy and there was a sign in the village for tango lessons so Yvette got a teacher to come round and we had an hour.”
And he recalled: “When I was at university I did a ballroom dancing competition for the waltz.
“But the only reason I did that was because I was really keen on my partner and it was the only way I got to talk to her.”
As a politician, being on the show was a gamble for Ed after losing his seat in Parliament last year. He said: “I wasn’t sure how wrong it could go.
“I’ve been watching the show for years but I’d forgotten that someone has to be eliminated in the first week.
“This occurred to me weeks after I’d said yes when a political friend said, ‘Well the only thing is that if you go out in the first week it will be quite bad.’ And I thought ‘Oh.’”
With harsh marks from judges Craig Revel Horwood, Darcey Bussell, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli, Ed has no doubt it is the fans keeping him in — and he is grateful as he is having the time of his life.
He said: “My family watch Gogglebox. I was at rehearsals and didn’t see it, but apparently they were all going, ‘He’s going to be terrible, look at him.’
“But they changed their minds during my performance, saying, ‘Actually, he’s trying,’ with a few of them even clapping and cheering.”
He puts much of his run so far down to Katya being strict enough to get the best out of him.
Ed said: “We were doing a turn it the waltz and it took me 35 turns. She makes me do it again and again.
“It’s the disappointment I find really hard. I’m quite sensitive.
“With the routines you add stuff to make it more interesting if it’s going well, but sometimes you have to take stuff out because it becomes clear that it’s never going to happen. I don’t ever want to take out things.”
POLITICS IS STILL PART OF MY LIFE
ED Balls has dropped his strongest hint yet that he will run again for Parliament.
The former MP lost his Morley and Outwood seat at last year’s election.
But he is 5/1 with bookies William Hill to re-enter Parliament at the next vote.
Ed said: “It’s impossible to ever leave politics behind.
“There are so many issues to be sorted out in the Labour Party, Europe and the world, so it’s impossible to cut yourself off from that.”
He also said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn needs to start understanding the needs of real people if he is ever to be PM — and that Sun readers are the key. He said: “If Sun readers don’t think the Labour Party is a better option than the Conservatives, then they won’t get back into power.
“I don’t think that Jeremy Corbyn is winning that argument at the moment.”
Ed has run three marathons and said he has the stamina for dancing — but confessed he struggles with the necessary flexibility.
He added: “I have an old ankle injury and it turns out the Charleston is quite bad for ankles. We both have bruising down our sides from grabbing. My lower back and these things called glutes, I’ve discovered, get very sore so you get achy all over. Deep Heat is my best friend.”
Katya has been in physio after hurting her shoulder in the Charleston and also has to dodge Ed’s flailing limbs.
Ed said: “Katya says in the paso doble you have to have quick and decisive moves but if your timing is wrong then you can clock your partner in the head. So I have to be a bit careful.”
Katya added: “‘I do have to duck a lot when we dance. He’s very direct.”
Ed is on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday on BBC1 from 6.30pm.
