Sam Quek's devastating family tragedy and admission over husband's Strictly 'jealousy'

Olympian Sam Quek is hoping to make it through to another week in this year's Strictly Come Dancing as she prepares to take to the floor in a Taylor Swift-inspired performance.

The 36-year-old has earned praise from judges and viewers alike after taking her skills from the hockey pitch to the dancefloor for the latest series and will hope to make it through the show's first ever Icons week alongside dance partner Nikita Kuzmin.

Sam has already proven herself to be multi-talented since winning an Olympic gold medal with Team GB at the 2016 Games in Rio, having moved into sports presenting and other TV work.

As well as her work on Olympic broadcasts, she has fronted coverage of the NFL, rugby and football and appeared on shows including I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity MasterChef and a revamped version of Question of Sport.

She has also spoken openly and honestly about her personal life and marriage, from the heartbreaking tragedy that she and her husband went through to his 'jealousy' over her Strictly stint. Here's everything you need to know.

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Heartbreaking tragedy with husband

Sam is married to Tom Mairs, a well-known figure in the property world.

The couple have been together for eight years, getting engaged in the summer of 2017, before tying the knot at Chester Racecourse a year later.

Tom is the son of a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, who gave him £1million when he finished his studies, leading him to set up Antona Student Properties. He is now a successful businessman in his own right and once appeared on Channel 4 show Secret Millionaire.

Together, the pair have two children, three-year-old Molly and two-year-old Isaac. But before they welcomed Molly into their lives, Sam and Tom suffered a devastating loss that "took a toll" on them for a long time.

The Olympian only shared the happy news that she was pregnant with Molly until she was six months along in the pregnancy, having suffered a miscarriage while 10 weeks pregnant back in January 2020. The devastating experience led them to keep their happy news under wraps for as long as possible the following year, but the couple have now spoken out to raise awareness of miscarriage and support others going through similar experiences.

"It's a strange one," Sam said during an exclusive interview and photoshoot with OK! magazine. "Obviously it's the happiest moment of our lives so far, but what happened in January took a toll on both of us and we weren't able to speak about it properly."

"This second pregnancy I've stopped myself getting too excited, which is quite sad. But it made it easier to keep quiet because in the back of your head, you think, 'What if? '"

Sam also went through a harrowing ordeal while pregnant with Isaac, with a health scare just a week before her due date seeing her rushed in for an emergency C-section. The former hockey star told OK! that she was woken by contractions in the night when she realised she was also bleeding.

"I woke up and felt a bit of a twinge," she recalled. "Those twinges gradually grew stronger and stronger and turned into contractions. I'd been having recurring nightmares that if this birth went to a C-section, I was going to haemorrhage. I just felt like something was going to go wrong for this one, I don't know why.

"Naturally, when you're pregnant and see blood, it's never a good sign," she added. "The consultant said 'just to be safe, we're going to whisk you down for an emergency C-section. We don't want to take the chance that it could be anything sinister, so we would advise getting him out'".

After Tom joined her at the medical centre, Quek underwent surgery and wept when she met her newborn son for the first time.

"When his little face popped up over the curtain, it was the realisation that he'd finally got here, was safe and was going to join our family of three to make it four," she smiled.

Husband's 'jealousy' over Strictly

Quek herself has described Tom as her "best mate and number one supporter" but admitted ahead of appearing on Strictly that he would be "jealous". However, this was not due to any dreaded Strictly curse, as she explained that he was really just a massive fan of the show.

"My husband is genuinely really excited for me because he knows how much I’m going to enjoy it," she said. "And I think that’s what’s really special about our relationship. We are solid, and I can’t wait to share this with him.

"He might even be a bit jealous, if I know Tom. He would love to be out there doing it – we’re always the couple at a wedding who are the last off the dance floor.”

Asked how Tom felt about her performing steamy dance routines, she added: "I’m not sexy. I can’t do the sexy eyes, the body language. So I think that will be a challenge to tap into that side of me.

"And if I try to do it, I’ll have to try not to laugh. I was on BBC Breakfast and was trying to show Naga Munchetty my sexy face and he [Tom] texted me, saying, ‘Almost.’”