Newsreader Kate Silverton says Strictly Come Dancing has spiced up her marriage to Hartlepool man Mike Heron

The BBC newsreader, who is partnered with Aljaz Skorjanec on Strictly, is married to town man Mike Heron.

Security expert Mark, who was a Royal Marine, got married to Kate at Fleet Street St Bride’s Church in 2009.

Mark had proposed to Kate on one knee in the Piazza del Popolo on a surprise trip to Rome in 2009, about a year after they met on a course for BBC journalists going to troubled zones, where he was an instructor.

BBC newsreader Kate appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss her experiences in this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

She told Good Morning Britain: "My husband is very cool with it and, more to the point, loving the impact that it's having on his wife."

When GMB host Piers Morgan asked for more detail, Silverton, 48, replied: "No, It's early morning."

She credited dance partner Skorjanec for "bringing out something else in me that I hadn't quite realised was there" in her tango.

Silverton previously turned down Strictly, saying: "The timing wasn't right."

Speaking about parenthood, she said she encourages her daughter Clemency to succeed by routinely asking her what she has "failed at".

"I want to show her it's OK to fail because you build on that," Silverton said.

Clemency said of Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood: "That nasty man on the end was mean to you" but her mother told her: "I've never danced before. That's constructive."