Annabel Croft has heartbreakingly admitted she ‘may never’ date anyone else again after her husband’s death.
The former tennis player, 58, who lost her partner Mel Coleman to cancer in May 2023, revealed she’s nowhere ‘close’ to being able to see someone new.
In a candid new interview with The Times, the Strictly star said: ‘I’ve had people asking for dinner dates. I’m, like, “You have no idea!” I’m not anywhere close to that.
‘It gives me the heebies to think about it. It’s never say never, but I wouldn’t mind if it was never.
‘Still, I don’t want to feel doom and gloom for the rest of my life. Mel would have wanted me to be happy. I try to live in the moment, to stay as present as you possibly can. It’s the only way to be – like a sportsman.’
Annabel Croft has heartbreakingly admitted she ‘may never’ date anyone else again after her husband’s death
The former tennis player, 58, who lost her partner Mel Coleman to cancer in May 2023, revealed she’s nowhere ‘close’ to being able to see someone new (pictured 2013)
Read More EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Strictly star Annabel Croft’s joy as her son gets engaged 
She added that this year, she and her family are going abroad for Christmas as staying at home would be too ‘painful’.
The pair married in 1993 and share three adult children, Charlie, Amber and Lilly.
Mel died just eight weeks after he was diagnosed with the terminal illness.
In the interview, Annabel said Mel was ‘always positive’ and was confident he could beat it.
She also talked about Mel’s love for Strictly and particularly pro dancer Johannes Radebe, who Annabel went on to be paired with last year.
They made it all way to the semi final and are still firm friends.
The new interview comes just after Annabel revealed she sleeps with her late husband’s scarf every night and still dresses to impress him.
Annabel said she regrets not paying him enough compliments when he was alive as he was always so admiring of her.
Speaking on the Style DNA podcast, the Wimbledon presenter confessed: ‘I sleep with his scarf. I have his scarf that he was wearing for all the treatments and everything, and it sort of smells of him.
‘So I go to bed and sleep with his scarf by my pillow.’
The Strictly star said: ‘I’ve had people asking for dinner dates. I’m, like, “You have no idea!” I’m not anywhere close to that’ (pictured together in June 2021)
The pair married in 1993 and share three adult children, Charlie, Amber and Lilly (pictured in 1988)
She joked that she ‘didn’t really like’ the scarf, adding: ‘It’s an awful scarf. But he absolutely loved it so I sleep with it in my bed.’
Annabel also confessed she will often consciously wear clothes that she knows he loved as Mel was ‘always incredibly complimentary’ about what she wore.
‘He always made me feel like the most important woman in the world,’ she continued.
‘He did make me feel like that. And, you know, I loved wearing clothes for him, actually, because he absolutely loved everything that I wore, always paid me compliments.
‘And I shall regret that I didn’t pay him enough compliments. I always said he was getting more handsome and ageing way better than me, and he was getting more handsome every day.
‘He was somebody who aged well and became more handsome as he got older.’
Annabel said he ‘really did love my fashion’, as she added: ‘I am conscious that I do wear things that I know that he would have loved.
‘So yeah, I’ll continue to do that.’
Annabel took part in last years Strictly with her partner Johannes Radebe and documented how it helped her through her grief
The star confessed she recently wore a dress that she had bought days before he died.
‘I brought it back to the house and put it on to show him and I had visualised I would wear that dress with him.
‘And I’d always visualised, “oh, this is what I’m going to wear when we’re on holiday together.” And he really loved it.’
Remembering the dress recently she explained: ‘Of course, I didn’t wear it until just recently and then it dawned on me that, “oh my god, that was the dress that I bought just before he died”.’
