Strictly Come Dancing contestant Thomas Skinner has confessed that he cheated on his wife just a fortnight after their May 2022 wedding, calling it “the biggest mistake” of his life. The former Apprentice star said he met a beauty clinic boss in a pub, accepted offers of “cosmetic slimming treatments,” and the encounter spiralled into what he describes as a “two-week fling.”
Guilt, he says, was immediate. “I’m so lucky she forgave me,” Thomas admitted, explaining that he went straight to his wife Sinead because he is “a very, very open book” and doesn’t hide anything from her. “My wife is my rock… I’m ashamed. I let her down.” He added that he would have understood if Sinead had never wanted to speak to him again.
Thomas suggested grief may have fuelled his self-destructive decision, saying the fling happened the day after a close friend known as Big Mark — a father figure who once took him in when he was homeless — died. However, the woman involved, Amy-Lucy O’Rourke, disputes his account via a spokesperson, insisting “she did not have a fling… she had a relationship with him and was deceived then treated appallingly.”
The revelation arrives amid a turbulent start to Thomas’s Strictly journey. Earlier this month he walked out of a press interview after briefly picking up a reporter’s phone, later saying he’d glimpsed messages about a “personal story” from his past and needed to step away. He apologised for touching the phone but stressed it “had nothing to do with Strictly,” adding he’s “excited” to be on the show and “can’t wait to give it [his] all on that dancefloor.” The BBC has reiterated that behaviour below its standards “will not be tolerated.”
Despite the storm, Thomas says he and Sinead are now in a stronger place: “She’s the person I adore more than anything in the world… I’m so fortunate my wife’s forgiven me.” He also accepts full responsibility: “No one else made me do what I’ve done. It just shows how something so brief could ruin your life.”
