Sam Quek’s devastating family tragedy and the confession of the “jealousy” of the husband

Olympian Sam Quek is hoping to make it through another week on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing as she prepares to take to the dance floor in a Taylor Swift-inspired performance.

The 36-year-old won praise from judges and viewers alike after taking her skills from the hockey rink to the dance floor for the latest series, and is hoping to make it through the first-ever Icons week alongside dance partner Nikita Kuzmin.

Sam has already proven she has many talents after winning an Olympic gold medal with Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Games, moving on to sports presenting and other television work.

In addition to her work on Olympic broadcasts, she has reported on NFL, rugby and football, and has appeared on shows such as I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, Celebrity MasterChef and a revamped version of Question of Sport .

She also spoke openly and honestly about her personal life and marriage, from the horrific tragedy she and her husband went through to his ‘jealousy’ over her stint on Strictly. Here’s everything you need to know.

A mental tragedy with a husband

Sam is married to Tom Mairs, a well-known figure in the real estate world.

The couple were together for eight years, got engaged in the summer of 2017, and married at Chester Racecourse a year later.

Tom is the son of a multi-millionaire entrepreneur who gave him £1m when he graduated, prompting him to set up Antona Student Properties. He is now a successful businessman in his own right and once appeared on the Channel 4 show Secret millionaire.

The couple have two children together, three-year-old Molly and two-year-old Isaac. But before they welcomed Molly into their lives, Sam and Tom suffered a terrible loss that “hit” them for a long time.

The Olympian shared the happy news that she was pregnant with Molly, just six months into her pregnancy, after suffering a miscarriage at 10 weeks in January 2020. This terrible experience forced them to keep their happy news a secret. as long as possible next year, but the couple have now come forward to raise awareness of the miscarriage and support others going through similar experiences.

“It’s amazing,” Sam said during an exclusive interview and photo shoot with OK! magazine. “Obviously it’s the happiest moment of our lives, but what happened in January has affected both of us so much that we haven’t been able to talk about it properly.”

“This second pregnancy I stopped worrying too much and it’s very sad. But it was easier for me to keep quiet, because in the back of your head you think, “What if?”

Sam also went through a terrifying ordeal while pregnant with Isaac, with a health scare just a week before giving birth when she was rushed into an emergency C-section. The ex-hockey star told OK! that she was awakened by contractions in the night when she realized she was also bleeding.

“I woke up and felt a slight pain,” she recalled. “These pains gradually became stronger and turned into contractions. I kept having nightmares that if this birth ended in a c-section, I would start bleeding. I just felt that something was going to go wrong in this case. , I don’t know why.

“Of course, when you’re pregnant and you see blood, it’s never a good sign,” she added. “The consultant said, ‘Just to be safe, we’re going to send you for an emergency caesarean section.’ We don’t want to risk that it could be something sinister, so we advise you to pull it out.”

After Tom joined her at the medical center, Quek underwent surgery and cried when she met her newborn son for the first time.

“When his little face popped over the curtain, it was the realization that he was finally here, safe and about to join our family of three to make four,” she smiled.

“Jealousy” of a man over Strict

Quek herself described Tom as her “best friend and number one supporter” but admitted before appearing on Strictly that he was “jealous”. However, it wasn’t due to any terrible Strictly curse, as she explained that he was actually just a huge fan of the show.

“My husband is really happy for me because he knows how much I’m going to enjoy it,” she said. “And I think that’s what’s really special about our relationship. We are strong and I can’t wait to share it with him.

“He might even be a little jealous if I know Tom. He’d love to be there and do that – we’re always the last couple off the dance floor at a wedding.”

Asked how Tom feels about her dancing, she added: “I’m not sexy. I can’t make sexy eyes, body language. So I think it will be a challenge to tap into that side of me.

“And if I try to do that, I’ll have to try not to laugh. I participated BBC Breakfast and tried to show Nazi Manchetti my sexy face and he (Tom) texted me saying, “Almost.”