BBC Strictly Come Dancing star's Chris McCausland's 'rock and roll' marriage to very private wife

Chris McCausland is the first blind person to take part in the Strictly, and he's recently opened up on his proposal to his Brazilian wife Patricia, who prefers to stay out of the limelight

Strictly's Chris McCausland popped the question to his very private wife Patricia in a 'rock and roll proposal' before getting married in 2012.

The comedian and his partner have been together for 16 years, after getting together when Patricia was working on a TV programme about the Edinburgh Festival. The pair hit it off and went on to tie the knot, and have their 10-year-old daughter Sophie. Chris, who is partnered up on the talent show with professional dancer Dianne Buswell, lost his eyesight when he was 22, after being diagnosed with a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

But although his wife likes to keep away from the limelight, 8 Out of 10 Cats star Chris has opened up on their personal life, explaining how he proposed to his Brazilian wife. Speaking to Disability Horizons, the Liverpool native said: "My wife used to work in TV and we met very early on in my career when she was involved in making a programme about the Edinburgh Festival."

He added: "We’ve been together for 16 years now and got married in 2012 after I’d proposed during a Pearl Jam concert at Hyde Park – rock and roll!" But when it came to having kids, Chris was "tormented" by the thought of having a child, and prayed for a girl. In a previous interview with the Mail, he said he was "terrified" about parenthood, saying: "I was in such a dilemma about it because I knew I would regret not having kids, but the thought of having kids terrified me.

"The idea of being a parent and all of the things I was going to be unable to do properly. My dad, all the things he used to do with me as a kid, taking me to different places, and the time he put in helping me build things. You go 'how am I going to be able to do those things - I'm not going to be a proper dad, I'm going to be a half dad'. That kind of really caused me a lot of torment in my head."

But despite his fears, he went on to have his daughter, and hasn't let being blind affect his Strictly experience either. He revealed that as the first blind person to take part in Strictly, he and Dianne were offered an expert to help co-ordinate training - but they declined. He told the Mirror: "They suggested it and I didn’t like the idea to be honest. In my opinion, the point of it is for my partner to learn how to teach me and me to learn a dance from her and that’s for us to figure it out together. We’ll make mistakes and we’ll have a laugh along the way and that’ll make for better VTs in the week, really."

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