James Jordan 'takes his hat off' to Ugo Monye for Strictly debut after father's funeral

27 September 2021

James Jordan says he "takes his hat off" to Ugo Monye for making his 'Strictly Come Dancing' debut hours after attending his father's funeral.

Ugo Monye

The 38-year-old former rugby union player performed the Samba with partner Oti Mabuse during the first night of the competition on Saturday (25.09.21) before leaving the judges and audience in shock as he revealed he had attended his father's funeral just hours before.

The pair only scored 18 out of 40 for the routine, and the former 'Strictly' pro blasted Craig Revel Horwood for only giving them a three.

In his 'Strictly Speaking' column with wife Ola Jordan in HELLO! magazine, he said: "Let’s just talk about Oti and Ugo for a minute."

To which his spouse replied: "Yes – I can’t believe he was able to pull off THAT performance when he had to attend his dad’s funeral that day."

The 43-year-old choreographer's dad Allan died after a battle with a brain tumour in March, and said he got "goosebumps" from Ugo's "celebration" of his late father's life.

He continued: "For someone who’s just lost their dad, I really take my hat off to him. Grief is a horrible thing and for him to be there and dance as a ‘celebration’ of his father’s life gave me goosebumps."

Ola responded: "I have such respect for him to be able to do that and so well too. Did you agree with their scoring though? Craig gave him a 3."

James added: "It definitely didn’t deserve a three. Samba is a really difficult dance, but the two sambas in the show ironically were so good. I used to hate doing samba with the celebrities, but I really admire what the pros are doing with the celebrities so far."

Ugo's beloved father died just a few weeks ago from prostate cancer and he told 'Strictly' co-presenter Claudia Winkleman: "My dad passed away a couple of weeks ago [from] prostate cancer, we had his funeral this morning. During the funeral they spoke about today being a day of celebration and that’s exactly how today felt, there’s no better way of celebrating than by dancing, so tonight feels really special."