By Islam El-Sakka
Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has revealed in his new autobiography that his father stabbed him in the leg and stomach during a violent incident when Du Beke was in his mid-twenties.
Boxing Day attack
The assault occurred on Boxing Day at the family home in Kent. While Du Beke was on the phone to his dance teacher, his father, Antal Xavier Beke, a Hungarian waiter who had fled the 1956 revolution, attacked him. Du Beke staggered into the street and was hospitalized for four days.
Aftermath and family impact
Du Beke said he felt “embarrassed” by the attack and told people he had torn a hamstring. The incident led to his parents’ divorce, and he never saw his father again after the latter was “carted off” by police. Du Beke does not know if his father was charged.
Du Beke’s perspective
In his book, Steps in Time: The Moments that Made Me, Du Beke writes that the episode does not define him and he prefers to “laugh off” the trauma. He notes a shared experience with fellow Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood, who has also spoken about an abusive father. Du Beke, now 60, says he does not drink and has moved on from the past.
Book publication
Steps in Time: The Moments that Made Me is published on 5 November.
