Anton du Beke's heartbreaking family life mum's health battles and ...

Anton du Beke will open up about his tough family life in tonight's episode of BBC show Anton and Giovanni's Adventures in Spain.

The Strictly Come Dancing judge is travelling around his home country of Spain, where he lived with his mum Ascension for many years, after the pair visited Sicily, which is where Giovanni is from last summer.

Tonight, Anton will make admissions about his mum Ascension's health - as she returns to Spain to join him in visiting their old home, whilst he also opens up about his tough relationship with his dad Antal. He has been open about his family, particularly in an episode of Life Stories last year, where he revealed his mum was very ill and his dad stabbed him when he was younger.

Mum's health struggles

Anton will explain tonight that his mum has been battling ill health. Last year, he was open about her health after she missed his appearance on Life Stories. During the TV appearance, presenter Kate Garraway said: "Your mum hasn’t been particularly well or she might have been here tonight," leaving Anton emotional as he explained what she had done for him over the years.

Explaining how she kept him afloat in the early days of his career, he said: "She funded everything. I had nothing. I left school - I didn’t take a single exam. No academic qualifications whatsoever. The mantra in our house was get a job and work. Mum would prop me up financially, I’d turn up with a cheque for my lesson," as he got emotional.

During his appearance on the show, he admitted: "She's not been well, you see, and she's amazing, and it makes me sad because what we were talking about earlier as well. You want people to have the best life and she’s not been well and I hope that she’s had a great time certainly since I started doing Strictly," and on tonight's episode of Anton and

Stabbed by father

Last year, Anton made a shock admission about his dad during an appearance on Life Stories, where he admitted that his Hungarian dad, Antal, was an alcoholic and hated him being a dancer. He recalled how one night he attacked him so viciously that he spent three days in hospital. He explained: "I got stabbed in the leg and in the stomach because of a fight on Boxing Day.

"It was idiotic. An idiotic situation. I remember walking out of the house to walk up to the hospital, holding my leg, and a police car drove past and I waved him down. And I said ‘he’s in there with a knife’ - anyway they carted him off and I ended up in hospital for three or four days," as Anton explained he was grateful it wasn't his mother Conchita or sister Veronica.

"You’ve got an alcoholic father and a situation where, if you’re in the house and he’s drinking, you end up with the fights and stuff. You’d move room to get away from it and he’d follow you in and then the violence starts," he said at the time.

Anton recalled how he had lied about what happened to him to save the "embarrassment".

"My only concern was getting back into the studio and dancing - and the embarrassment of it really. I’d say I’d pulled a hamstring," he said, "I’m sure my friends and family don’t even know. It’s the first time I’ve mentioned it out loud. What’s to be gained from talking about it all? I can’t really believe I’m talking to you about this, I should have glossed over it and said 'it was all marvellous dear.'"

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