Real reason Claudia Winkleman doesn't wear Halloween costume on Strictly Come Dancing

Strictly fans were left stumped when co-host appeared sans Halloween get-up alongside her decked-out colleagues last year, but there's a tragic backstory that explains her decade-long avoidance of spooky costumes.

Sporting black rather than bewitching garb for the haunted edition of the popular dance contest in 2023, the presenter hasn't embraced a full Halloween guise since a harrowing event in 2014. The fateful night that changed everything saw her then eight-year-old daughter Matilda suffer serious burns after coming into contact with a candle in her fancy dress costume while they were out trick or treating.

Matilda's costume caught fire in an instant, resulting in severe damage to her legs, and their neighbour, Jamie Poulton, subsequently acquired second-degree burns trying to halt the rapidly spreading flames. In the wake of the nightmare, Claudia stepped back from her Strictly duties as her family grappled with the ordeal. Halloween remains a holiday that brings no joy to Claudia.

She shared her pain in an interview with The Mail: "I don't like Halloween because [a few] years ago it turned out our screams were real. She 'went up' is the only way I can describe it - it was a spark, and she screamed out for me." She further recounted the traumatic episode: "It was like those horrific birthday candles that you blow out and they come back. It was really fast. It was definitely life-changing for me."

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Claudia was left so shaken by her daughter's accident that she sought support from her good friend, child psychologist Tanya Byron. On their podcast 'How Did We Get Here?', the Strictly presenter opened up: "You helped me with flashbacks. I had flashbacks of when my daughter had an accident and they come at you like a bull."

She continued: "Like a tsunami, it's so enormous you think you're going to drown. So you have to shove it to one side." Recalling the terrifying fire incident, Claudia's neighbour Jamie recounted: "It was like a potential horror film in front of me. This material just keeps reigniting and re-burning. And it is sticky, so it melts on the skin. It was horrific."

Three years on from the harrowing event, Claudia triumphed in her campaign to make children's fancy dress costumes safer. The British Retail Consortium has introduced voluntary guidelines which state that fabrics used in toys under which category kids' costumes fall should not burn faster than 10mm per second, marking a significant step up from the existing law that permits a burn rate of 30mm per second.

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