Strictly star Bill Bailey’s heartbreaking gesture every day for a year to woo wife
Bill Bailey #BillBailey
Bill Bailey has gone from the comic wild card to red hot favourite to lift the Strictly Come Dancing Glitterball trophy.
The 55-year-old’s stunning pase doble, performed with professional dance partner, Oti Mabuse, wowed the judges and audience at home.
Even Craig Revel Horwood was full of praise for the Never Mind The Buzzcocks star.
Writing in the column for Best magazine, the judge said: “Each week he [Bill] surprises me. He’s come up with a new genre of dance – yes one I’ve never seen – but he could possibly win Strictly.”
This week, Bill and Oti will be hoping to replicate their success with the couple’s choice dance, performed to Rapper’s Delight.
And cheering him on will be Bill’s devoted wife, Kristin.
The couple have been married for 22 years after tying the knot in 1998. They met at one of Bill’s gigs in 1987 when she was running the bar he was performing in.
It seems it was love at first sight for the comedian, who was determined to hold onto the woman he describes as his “wild card”.
Recalling the first time he laid eyes on Kristin, Bill said: “She had a very distinctive style. She had this long brocade coat, and I realised she was a free spirit and did her own thing.
“We ended up chatting away, and all went to a party, and she put me up on her sofa.”
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It seems it was love at first sight for the comedian, who was determined to hold onto the woman he describes as his “wild card”.
Grateful for giving him somewhere to sleep, Bill bought Kristen a bunch of flowers – but this would be the first step in his year long mission to persuade her to give him a chance.
Every day for a year, love sick Bill penned Kristen a letter.
He explained: “I didn’t have a computer for email, phoning wasn’t easy. It was very old fashioned.”
His efforts worked and the pair became a couple. Ten years after they started dating, and while on travelling in Asia, the Bill and Kristen decided to tie the knot – immediately.
He said: “We were travelling around Asia and sailed into a place called Banda, with a beautiful lagoon, and a smoking volcano on one side and a Dutch colonial fort, an old church and remains of a little town on the other.
“We decided to get married there and then.”
In 2003, Bill and Kristen welcomed their son, Dax, who they named after a child they met while they were travelling.
Speaking about the significance of the name in an interview with the Guardian, Bill said: “Contrary to popular belief, Dax is not named after a Star Trek character.
“The name came from a friend of ours who married an Indonesian man.
“They had a son called Dax and we just always associated it with being in Indonesia and always said, ‘If ever we have a child, that’ll be in the running’.
“At the same time I’d rather lost track of the various Star Trek spin-offs and was completely unaware that Dax was also the name of a character in Deep Space Nine until someone told me.”
Despite his busy work schedule, Bill is a devoted dad and husband.
Discussing his parenting style in an interview with the Mirror in July, Bill said: “I’m quite relaxed as a parent. Maybe I should be more disciplinarian, but it’s not in my nature. I’m pretty hands-on in terms of activities, though. I like the boy to do stuff.
“We go cycling and paint-balling together, and I’ve taught him how to pitch tents. The way he’s turned out is my biggest achievement.”