Prince William wades into Strictly 'fix' row and reveals Kate Middleton is a big fan

Prince into the 'fix' row after meeting swimmer - the shock first contestant to be eliminated from this year's competition.

The Prince of Wales where he visited the Birtley Community Swimming Pool near Gateshead. The pool opened in 1974 but was closed by Gateshead Council in July 2023 due to costs. The prince was told that the community came together to support efforts to reopen the pool through a crowdfunding campaign and that businesses and tradespeople gave their time to refurbish the facilities.

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While there, he was also introduced to fellow Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty as well as Tom, w, after losing in the dance-off to Toyah Wilcox and Neil Jones - despite Toyah coming much lower down the leaderboard than him.

And speaking after chatting to William and showing him his gold medals which he earned in Tokyo in 2021 and at the Paris Olympics in the summer, Tom said how William and wife Kate thought him being voted off the show was "robbery". After the visit, the swimmer said: "He (William) doesn't watch it but his wife's a big fan. Robbery was the word he used. Very, very kind of him but it does give me a lot more free time to do stuff like this."

It came as William also revealed he missed the Olympics in Paris because he did not want to bring Covid home to his wife the who was having cancer treatment.

Tom asked the Prince: "Did you manage to get out there [to Paris]?" But William, looking at Adam Peaty, responded: "No I was so keen to come but I have to say after reading someone's interview about Covid, I decided, because my wife was obviously having chemo, that I didn't want to risk bringing Covid home, so Adam very kindly reminded me that that was still a thing! "But we watched the whole thing. We were glued to it every day."

The princess was diagnosed with cancer in February and last month announced she had recently completed her chemotherapy treatment. The prince added: "Catherine and I both adore swimming. George loves scuba diving. He was 10 years old, we took him under, thinking he'd freak out, but he absolutely loved it. It just introduced him to the of water.."

The prince and his hosts then continued to discuss the impact of community pools closing down. William said: "We've heard stories up and down the countries of pools closing down, so we thought: 'No, we want to be able to stop this'.

"We want to replicate this [Birtley's pool re-opening] across the country because swimming is such an important part of life. We're an island nation, we should all have access to learn how to swim."

The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales has now announced a new partnership with the Birtley Community Pool to provide swimming lessons and lifeguard training. Tom, who is a three-time Olympic swimming champion, added: "I was talking to William…and we're going to be working together to provide swimming lessons for places in need…projects like this are brilliant and working with the Royal Foundation is a true honour.

"[ ’s visit] is a testament to what this community has done. Getting that nod and recognition from himself [and] The Royal Foundation is really special." Aides added that swimming was going to be a big focus of the Foundation going forward.