BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Pete Wicks had 'hardest time' after losing his 'best friend' nan

Pete Wicks previously spoke about experiencing the 'hardest time of his life' following the death of his 'best friend'. Now, the podcast host is set to pay tribute to his beloved nan on Strictly Come Dancing.

It has been an emotional week of training for former The Only Way is Essex star Pete as he returns to the ballroom on Saturday night (November 8) alongside his professional dance partner Jowita Przystal.

The pair will be performing a couple's choice routine to The Best by Nicotine Dolls and during an episode of Strictly spin-off It Takes Two this year, Pete told how he hasn't been able to get through the routine without crying due to the personal meaning behind the routine and song choice.

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Pete told the BBC2's host Janette Manrara: "This is going to be a tough one for me. Based on the fact I've not heard the song all the way through up until this week since my nan's funeral.

"My nan was my best mate and we played this at her funeral because it was her favourite song. And if there's one person that I wish was here and was able to watch me, it would be her, and she's not been." Pete added: "So this is kind of my way of having her on this mad little adventure with me. So yeah it's been a tough week. I've spent more time crying than I have dancing."

Pete has spoken fondly over the years about his grandmother in several interviews. In one, he compared her to "the nan from Catherine Tate". He said: "She is the only person that tells me the truth, non-stop. My mum loves me, whatever I do, despite the fact that I'm generally a bit of a w***er.

"But my nan will tell me when I'm a w***er. In fact, she quite often tells me I'm a w***er when she's not calling me Steve. She's got a habit of calling me Steve. I'm not entirely sure why."

Pete then later opened up about his "biggest regret" following the sad death of his nan Doreen in 2022. In his book Never Enough, the 36-year-old proudly detailed the many precious memories the pair shared together, including when she got a tattoo dedicated to him on her ankle and her being his rock through troubled teenage years.

He also emotionally opened up about the darker times when he saw his nan slowly becoming ill over a seven-year period, before her death. "The day she died, I had been in London seeing friends," he wrote in a chapter dedicated to Doreen. "Mum called me and told me I needed to get to the hospital quickly. Nan didn't want to do it anymore - she was in too much pain and was going to ask the doctors to turn off her oxygen machine."

Pete said after trying to stop his nan's decision, he knew he had to come to terms with her life ending and described it as "the hardest thing" he had ever done. Mum and I sat either side of her, holding each hand," he recalled. "I can remember the last words she said to me as if it were yesterday: 'You're my soulmate'."

Pete also opened up about how he faced a traumatic childhood in which he helped saved his mum's life and dealt with an estranged father. He told how his happy childhood was almost shattered by the divorce of his parents when he was just 11. After the split, he lost contact with his father, who moved to the Middle East.

In his book, he said: "I still don’t currently have a relationship with my dad. I admire him more than any other man in the world, but unfortunately, we have fallen out. Hopefully, one day, we will fix that." He also said during an episode of Celebs Go Dating: "My dad is a good man. My mum and dad split up when I was younger - 11 or so - and I've barely seen him since.

"And I understand that things were difficult for him at the time but I wasn't enough for him to stay, was I? Him leaving didn't just affect me. My mum was not in a great way for a good few years. And I didn't really get a chance to process what I needed to process because I had to make sure she was alright."

Pete became a paper boy at 12 to help with their financial situation after his mum struggled following the split. And while Tracy has been seen supporting her son on Strictly this year, there was a time where Pete feared she wouldn't be here. Describing a traumatic incident where he saved her life in his book, Pete says: "I saw her sitting at the table, which had been covered in blood. I saw the blood dripping first.

"She was holding a knife in her other hand. Immediately, I ran over to her to take the knife from her hand. Before that, she had seemed almost possessed – it was like my mum had gone and someone (or something) else had taken over her body. But when I came over to her, it’s like she woke up. She looked up at me with eyes full of tears. ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ she kept repeating.

"I told her it was okay as I panicked trying to work out what to do. I called Nan. I could barely get the words out to describe what had happened. I think I basically just said, ‘Mum... knife... blood.’”

Pete's grandmother tried to calm him down and told him to call 999. He continues: "I took her instructions, calling the ambulance, and then I got to work trying to look after Mum, who by that point was sitting on the floor and bleeding very badly. I grabbed towels to try to stop the bleeding. I poured the wine down the sink.

"It’s hard to pinpoint how I felt in that moment, because I think it was just pure shock. I didn’t cry – I just went into crisis mode." When Tracy made a recovery, she told him it was a "moment of madness" and promised him it would never happen again.