Kevin Clifton pays tribute to Stacey Dooley

Kevin Clifton has paid a gushing tribute to his rumoured girlfriend Stacey Dooley.

The 36-year-old dancer - who was partnered with Stacey during \'Strictly Come Dancing\' in 2018 - has admitted to recently enduring a turbulent period in his personal life, and has also thanked Stacey for helping him to realise his ambition of winning the BBC show.

Kevin - who split with wife Karen Clifton in March last year - told the Daily Mirror newspaper during the first night of the \'Strictly\' tour: "In the last couple of years I\'ve seen massive upheaval in my personal life and it hasn\'t always been easy.

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"There have been a lot of things thrown at me. At times I\'ve struggled. And the times I\'ve struggled and I was in a bit of a rut I didn\'t know what to do."

Kevin also admitted it\'s been tough dealing with personal troubles while living his life in the spotlight.

What\'s more, he described his \'Strictly\' triumph alongside Stacey as a "miracle".

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He said: "It gets difficult and I\'m not the best at dealing with it.

"But at that point Burn the Floor stepped in again and the producers gave me a call and said, \'Why don\'t you come home?\' So it felt right and I came home.

"And thanks to Miss Stacey Dooley, I can finally say I\'m the \'Strictly\' ­champion after six years of trying. It\'s a miracle."