Craig Revel Horwood recalls being ‘stabbed’ and ‘robbed’ as BBC Strictly star shares horrific holiday attack
Craig Revel Horwood has opened up about a harrowing experience in the Spanish capital, revealing that he was knifed and robbed during what was supposed to be a relaxing break abroad.
The 61-year-old Strictly Come Dancing judge shared the alarming account on his Judgemental podcast, which he co-hosts with long-standing colleague Anton Du Beke.
“My jewellery was stolen as well, they ripped my necklace off my neck and gave me a big burn mark,” he recounted, explaining that the chain left visible marks where it was yanked away.
Mr Revel Horwood described the timing of the incident as unremarkable by Spanish standards, as dining out and socialising in the early hours was normal.
Craig Revel Horwood has recalled a terrifying knife attack while in Spain
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The holiday, he said, “ended up pretty bad,” with the wounds and burn marks from the violent encounter leaving him visibly battered as he prepared to make his way back to France.
When Mr Revel Horwood returned to Paris looking dishevelled and bearing the injuries from the assault, French officials pulled him aside for a thorough inspection.
“I hadn’t shaved, so I did look a bit of a wreck, I’d been stabbed, I had burn marks all around my neck from where I was, like, attacked,” he explained.
“And then the French strip-searched me down to literally nothing… they were looking for drugs.”
Craig Revel Horwood is the longest serving Strictly judge
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When Mr Du Beke pressed him on just how invasive the search had been, Mr Revel Horwood confirmed that authorities examined every part of his body, including his rectum.
He described the entire experience as “horrific.”
The dancer had been working at the celebrated Lido de Paris on the Champs-Élysées, having begun performing there in his early twenties.
Mr Revel Horwood’s travel misfortunes were not confined to Europe. On a separate occasion, he flew to Mombasa in Kenya expecting a safari adventure, only to receive devastating news upon landing.
Craig Revel Horwood
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“Got out there, arrived, all the hotels and everything were paid for in advance, they’re giving us a like a bus from the airport to the hotel, and they said on arrival, ‘your hotel has burnt down’,” he recalled.
Nobody had thought to inform the group before they made the journey, leaving them stranded at the airport with nowhere to stay.
“The hotel was burnt down, and no one bothered to tell us until we actually arrived,” he said.
Organisers eventually managed to find alternative accommodation, and the group was moved to a replacement hotel.
Despite the rocky start, Mr Revel Horwood went on to enjoy what he described as a romantic cruise along the River Nile. The tranquillity proved short-lived, however.
As the group queued at the airport the following day to catch their flight home, fellow travellers began collapsing one after another.
“One by one, when we’re standing in the queue at the airport, people just were falling to the ground, literally dropping, like boom,” he said.
The cause was subsequently traced to salmonella poisoning, brought on by contaminated chicken the party had consumed the evening before.
Mr Revel Horwood summed up the experience by saying it had been “all good fun until the flight.”
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