Strictly’s JJ Chalmers is reunited with his wife and children after 10 weeks
With his Strictly dream over, JJ Chalmers has the consolation of a joyful reunion with his wife and children.
Get all the Strictly glitter and goss straight to your inbox with our Strictly Come Dancing newsletter
Subscribe
Invalid Email
He spent ten weeks away from his young family isolated inside the Strictly bubble.
Now, with his dreams of the glitterball trophy over, JJ Chalmers has the consolation of a joyful reunion with his wife and children.
On Wednesday, his professional dancer partner Amy Dowden shared footage of herself FaceTiming with JJ and his four-year-old daughter Hayley.
“Look at those happy faces @jj.chalmers!!!” Amy wrote across the image of the smiling father and daughter.
JJ, a BBC presenter and good friends with Prince Harry, was voted out of the dancing competition in Sunday night.
The 33-year-old narrowly missed out on a semi-final place after landing in the dance-off with Jamie Laing and partner Karen Hauer.
Both couples performed their routines again, with JJ and Amy dancing their Charleston to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Jamie and Karen performing their Jive to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
Afterwards, the judges delivered their verdicts, with Craig Revel Horwood choosing to save Jamie and Karen and Motsi saving JJ and Amy.
That meant that it was down to Head Judge Shirley Ballas to deliver the casting vote, choosing to save Jamie.
Speaking afterwards, JJ said that he was “unbelievably proud” of what he and Amy had achieved.
The Invictus Games medallist was out of foot patrol with his comrades in 2011 when one of them stepped onto an improvised explosive device. He was thrown onto his back and says the first thing he remembers about the harrowing day is lying “pulverised” in a pile of rubble.
Father-of-two JJ said: “Every part of my body had sustained some sort of damage. My legs were torn open, my face was crushed, my neck was broken, my arms were pretty well torn off.”
It was the “worst pain” the young Royal Marine Commando had ever experienced and he remains eternally grateful for the fellow soldiers who desperately tried to save his life while they waited for medical help to arrive.
He was taken by helicopter to Camp Bastion and an hour after being severely injured in the blast was on the operating table.
JJ was flown back to the UK for life-saving treatment and the hero Royal Marine endured 30 operations on his wounded body.
MirrorCeleb