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STRICTLY STAR TALKS LOCKDOWN AND HIS NEW LIFE IN MALLORCA!

Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole made the permanent move to Mallorca to start a new life with his wife and two children just a day before Spain went into lockdown, and after a year of strict restrictions are now able to fully immerse themselves in Spanish life.

By Terenia Taras

Throughout lockdown Brendan found himself without work and their children unable to start school and nursery but he and wife Zoe remained undeterred from their dream to start a new life on the island.

“One of the worst things for me over the last year or so has been the unknown of not knowing where everything was going, and I have hated not working. This last year of not working has been kind of mind blowing, what it does to you, said Brendan.

“From the moment I left school at sixteen I’ve worked constantly and barely had two months off at any one time. So, to go from that to fourteen months of not having any actual physical work has been just bizarre.

“You lose a sense of self-worth. I didn’t ever think that was possible because I consider myself mentally strong, nothing really fazes me ever.”

Brendan started dancing at the age of seven in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he grew up with his brother and sister. He moved to England at the age of eighteen to pursue his dancing career and after several years working on building sites and the odd office job, has worked in the entertainment industry ever since.

Without work, Brendan focused on his family life and became a self-confessed school-run mum.

“With the governments stopping the television and entertainment industry from existing, my life definitely slowed down. My days consisted of doing the school drop-off, and household chores. I’d drop the children, say hello to the other mum’s and dad’s and then I’d go home and do the garden or paint the house to then down tools and do the school run again. “It was just insane and a forced situation, rather than a choice. I’d always envisaged that at one point I’d go, you know what, I’ve had enough of this working malarkey and dancing around like a lunatic. But to have that taken away without a say is outrageous. The fact someone else can stop you from doing something was quite hard for me to get my head around. “I do think it’s absolutely outrageous that livelihoods can be taken away so easily, without a say or any financial help. So many people, particularly in certain industries, have been completely ruined financially. It’s very sad.”

Brendan, Zoe and their two children, aged eight and three, live in their villa that they’ve owned for the last five years in the North of