11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Strictly's Dianne Buswell admits 'it's been tough' as she addresses heartbreaking news
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Strictly Come Dancing's Dianne Buswell has opened up about heartbreaking news she received this week, admitting it's been "tough". The Australian, who joined the hit BBC programme in 2017 as a pro dancer and won last year with Chris McCausland, recently revealed her grandfather had died. Sharing her grief on the Winning Isn't Everything podcast with fellow Strictly winner Chris McCausland, she revealed: "He only celebrated his 99th birthday two weeks ago. I don't think he wanted to reach 100."
Her grandad, affectionately nicknamed Buzz, took immense pride in her triumphant Strictly journey, once referring to Chris as "the blind fellow". She told Chris: "He couldn't believe that I taught the blind fella how to dance."
After her win, Dianne cherished moments back home, replaying show highlights with Buzz. Reflecting on those precious times, she said: "We watched some of the dances together. He got very emotional about it. He loved it. And before I left, he said to me, 'You know, I'm pretty much done'."
Although the family held onto hope for Buzz's centenary, his health declined rapidly after his birthday. Dianne explained his final days saw him growing weary and being placed on supplemental oxygen. "He just began to get really tired and they put like a little oxygen mask on him," she said.
(Image: Instagram)
"He was still in his nursing home. So he didn't go to hospital or anything, but he was getting weaker by the day. But he called me a couple of days ago and he was still quite conscious.
"And that was the last time, because my dad told me this morning that, he sadly passed away at about ten something this morning in Australian time. which is really sad, but he's now with his wife, Mary, who passed away from Alzheimer's."
"He loved her so, so much. They were inseparable. He did everything for her. They used to go travelling together. She was a surf life saver, he was a bike rider. They were a very fit and very active couple. So I'm sure he would be up there with her now having a little dance."
Dancing is very much a family affair for Dianne. She and her brother Andrew were Western Australian Open Adult New Vogue champions for 2008 and 2010 before she went on to appear on Aussie TV's So You Think You Can Dance – a spinoff of the US show of the same name presented by Cat Deeley.
Dianne went on to appear on the Australian version of Strictly, Dancing with the Stars, before making the fateful move to the UK that saw her meeting now-partner Joe Sugg in the 2018 series.
(Image: PA)
She revealed in the podcast that she had been missing her family back in Australia, and had every started making plans to bring her parents over for a surprise holiday, but she's now glad she didn't.
Dianne said: "Something in my head was telling me 'don't book it just yet.' So I kept putting it off...I had this weird feeling."
"And then last week when my dad was saying 'Pops is not really in a great way' And I thought 'there was my reason.'" She revealed that conversing with her dad after he broke the sad news was challenging, confessing: "I don't know really how to act or what to do in situations like this. I feel like I'm just trying to console my dad over phone, but I didn't really know what to say or do. It's really tough."
