Will was choked up after the performance (Picture: BBC)
Will Mellor broke down in tears after an incredibly emotional Strictly Come Dancing performance in tribute to his late dad.
Will lost his father, Bill, in 2020, and previously said he wanted to appear on Strictly to help make new happy memories for his mother, the BBC series being her favourite show.
The soaps actor is paired up with Nancy Xu, with the pair topping the leader-board in week one.
Ahead of their performance tonight, he shared in the pre-recorded VT: ‘It’s a song my dad used to sing to my mum.’
During rehearsals, Will video called his mum and told her: ‘The routine is beautiful, it’s going to be really emotional on the night.’
He added: ‘Hopefully with this dance I can pay my respects to my dad.’
Will and Nancy danced to Lionel Richie’s Three Times A Lady (Picture: PA)
The emotional dance was dedicated to his late dad (Picture: BBC)
After the emotional performance to Lionel Richie’s track Three Times A Lady, Will was in tears receiving the judges’ comments.
‘I think you’ve done your family enormously proud,’ judge Craig Revel-Horwood shared, before the pair were awarded an incredible 38.
‘I can’t talk at the moment sorry,’ an emotional Will shared, as Nancy said: ‘We want to dedicate this dance to anyone who lost their loved ones and didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.’
Will lost his dad during the pandemic (Picture: Instagram Will Mellor)
Their dance scored 38 from the judges (Picture: BBC)
He added to the camera, to reassure his kids amid the tears: ‘I’m alright kids.’
This comes after Will revealed he had to stop rehearsals due to grief.
‘It was one of my dad’s favourite songs, he used to sing it to my mum,’ he revealed on an appearance on Thursday’s episode of Loose Women.
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‘I couldn’t get through Monday without crying, it was just so hard.
‘It’s weird, grief, when you lose somebody you think “It’s gone, I can talk about it now.” And then something happens and it grabs you.
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‘And I couldn’t talk. And it was weird. So we lost a lot of Monday because I couldn’t concentrate.’
However he added that it was important for him to keep going, as his father ‘lives in me now’ and he wanted to make him – and his mother – proud.
Strictly Come Dancing airs Saturday and Sunday on BBC One.
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Will choked back tears after an incredibly emotional performance.
