Inside Strictly star Pete Wicks' terrifying health scare that left him 'struggling to move'

Pete Wicks is winning more fans each week as he improves on Strictly Come Dancing. But the star once took part in a gruelling reality show challenge that didn't go so well

Strictly Come Dancing fans have been wowed by the progress of former The Only Way Is Essex star Pete Wicks.

Pete, 36, and his dance partner, Jowita Przystal, took to the floor with their Quickstep to A Town Called Malice by The Jam, earning a total of 29 points out of 40. The pair looked emotional when they got their result and show fans took to social media to praise Pete's improvement since the programme began.

"Pete is what Strictly is all about for me," wrote @beartops123. "His progression and improvement in 4 weeks is extraordinary." Pete has fallen in love with dance but previous TV reality shows haven't always quite gone so well for the star.

The Strictly contestant was taking part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins in 2022 when he broke ribs jumping from a helicopter. Pete confessed he had had "no worries about that challenge" beforehand.

"I genuinely thought this would be the challenge for me to show what I f****** got," he said. "I got it wrong, I got it very wrong. I think my leg got a little bit caught in the bag and I went straight down onto the bag, knocked myself out and broke my ribs."

"I felt dazed and confused," Pete continued on the Channel 4 show, speaking about the aftermath of his jump. "I was struggling to move my upper body. Basically, I think where I'd hit the bag, and I think just the impact of being unconscious and everything else, I was very confused."

The plucky star returned for this year's Celeb SAS but collapsed when single-handedly pulling a sledge up a snowy mountain, leaving show expert Mark 'Billy' Billingham worried he might not make it. "I just pushed myself to a limit and I was very dehydrated," he told The Sun, quipping: "I think I'm the only person that gets heat exhaustion in the f****** snow."

The star's time on the dance contest is looking more promising, with a new high score and sizzling chemistry with dance pro Jowita, 30. In traditional Strictly fashion, this has sparked romance rumours.

"There's a story been going around for two weeks saying me and Jowita kissed during the dance… everyone watched it on TV," Pete said of their American Smooth on his podcast Staying Relevant. "They called it a 'passionate kiss', it's the choreography, and we didn't."

The star blamed his lothario reputation, which he earned from his time on Towie years ago, for being linked with Jowita. And he insists he's a different person nowadays.

"I had this 'bad boy' persona and that's my fault," Pete told his fellow podcast host and pal Sam Thompson. "The person I am now is different to the person I was 11 years ago and the person I am now is different to the person I will be in 11 years."