Strictly's Dani Dyer and Delta Goodrem hit back at claims they have an 'unfair advantage' on the show as they detail their challenging journeys to make it onto the dancefloor

Almost exactly a year ago, Dani Dyer was lying in bed at home in the Essex countryside, crying her eyes out. 'I was utterly heartbroken,' she says. 'I basically had a week of mourning.' And who can blame her? Last summer, Dani had been unveiled as one of the celebrity contestants for the 23rd series of Strictly.She took part in a dazzling Weekend photoshoot with fellow contestant – and now great friend – Vicky Pattison, bubbling with excitement at the way her Strictly-devotee mother-in-law had 'manifested' her taking part.And then it all went horribly wrong: just before the launch show, Dani fractured her ankle while rehearsing the quickstep with professional partner Nikita Kuzmin and had to pull out. That, it seemed, was that. Except here we are, a year on, and Dani, 30, is gearing up again for her chance to lift the Strictly glitterball after producers decided she deserved another roll of the dice.'I couldn't say yes fast enough,' she says of the moment she was offered another bite of the cha-cha-cherry earlier this year. 'I was so grateful because although I know what happened wasn't my fault, I felt this overwhelming guilt. So to get a second chance is amazing.' Strictly's Dani Dyer and Delta Goodrem have hit back at claims they have an 'unfair advantage' on the show as they detailed their challenging journeys to make it onto the dancefloorTiming has proved equally crucial for recruiting the Australian powerhouse singer and actress Delta Goodrem, whose touring schedule – not to mention an appearance at Eurovision – has seen her rooted firmly in the northern hemisphere this year, making a stint on Strictly UK a manageable feat.Today, fresh from a stadium show in Switzerland, Delta, 41, is looking forward to putting roots down in London for a while. 'I've fallen in love with the city – the architecture, the people, I love all of it. And I'm beyond excited to step into Strictly world. It's iconic,' she says. 'Bring it all on.'Dani is similarly enthusiastic, though her excitement is tinged with apprehension. 'I'm probably most nervous about getting out on that dancefloor for the first time and being judged,' she says. 'I'm my own biggest critic, I'll probably overthink everything. But my biggest fear is getting injured again. I do feel a bit wobbly after what happened, and doing the quickstep will be hard.'When she landed painfully on her left foot last year, her initial instinct was to carry on through the pain. 'I've got quite a high pain threshold so I persuaded myself I might just have rolled my ankle and if I rested up it would be fine,' she recalls.Knowing a thing or two about ankle injuries, Dani's footballer husband, West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen, bought her an ice machine and instructed her to ice it for 20 minutes every hour over the following two days. 'And I did, but it just kept swelling. Then the physio guys said I had to go for an MRI, which showed it was fractured,' she recalls.Cue the heartbreak and an agonising ten weeks of recovery. 'That meant no gym, which is a nightmare as I love it, but I had to take it really slowly and listen to the physios.'At the time we speak, neither woman has been given her professional partner – Dani says she'd love to have Nikita again, while Delta just hopes for someone 'taller than me' (she's 5ft 10in, while Dani's only 5ft 1in). Last summer, Dani had been unveiled as one of the celebrity contestants for the 23rd series of Strictly but it all went horribly wrong when she fractured her ankle just before the show launchSo for now both are simply trying to keep fit – rather more of a challenge for Delta who, unlike Dani, is emphatically not a gym bunny. 'My fitness has been carrying suitcases for the past six months, so I will definitely have to up my game,' she says.Dani and Delta – named after Joe Cocker's 1969 hit song Delta Lady – hadn't met before Strictly brought them together. While Delta 'sort of knew' two of her rivals – celebrity hair stylist Chris Appleton and Paralympic athlete Dame Sarah Storey, who she crossed paths with at this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where Delta sang at the closing ceremony – she didn't really know any of them. She has, however, hit it off with TV dog trainer Graeme Hall, aka 'The Dogfather'. 'We're besties,' she beams. 'It's been really nice to get to know him.'Dani, meanwhile, thinks 'nicest guy ever' Chris is going to be her new pal, but she was already familiar with a couple of the cast.She's met EastEnders actress Lacey Turner a few times and is good friends with Jaime Winstone. 'My dad and Ray Winstone just finished a job together, which is a real full-circle moment,' she says.In another neat twist, Dani also appeared on new Strictly host Josh Widdicombe's New Year's Eve show The Last Leg last year. 'We sang Parklife together but we had zero clue that months later we'd be on Strictly. Stars must have been aligning.'Talk of Josh, of course, is a reminder that producers are clearly hoping for a fresh start this year after a string of scandals involving drugs, inappropriate comments and aggressive behaviour. Longstanding presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have stepped down after an 11-year partnership, and comedian Josh is one of the new presenters alongside Emma Willis and former Strictly pro dancer Johannes Radebe. Not everyone is convinced they have what it takes to create the Strictly magic, but Dani is reassured. 'I saw them yesterday, they were all lined up and trust me it works. They're very funny and very genuine. You have nothing to worry about.' Meanwhile Delta's success is all the more impressive given the health problems she's endured. Aged just 18 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma Both are all ready for the now cult Strictly spray tan – 'I love it,' says Dani – though Delta is particularly keen to embrace the sequins and sparkles. 'Hit me up with all of it, the glitter, the big hair,' she says. Alongside mastering ballroom, she's especially keen to learn the tango. 'I've heard it's spectacular,' she says.Another bond that Dani and Delta share is that they're both newlyweds. Dani is just 15 months into marriage to Jarrod, who is father to their three-year-old twin girls Summer and Star (she also has a five-year-old son, Santi, with her stockbroker ex Sammy Kimmence), and woe betide anyone who suggests she might fall victim to the famous so-called Strictly curse, which has seen contestants leave their real-life lovers for their professional dance partners. 'Jarrod's very laid-back, I'm not,' she laughs. 'I think that's why we work so well because we're polar opposites and balance each other out.'Just weeks after Dani's wedding, Delta married musician Matthew Copley in Malta following a nine-year romance.She reveals the Maltese wedding was in part a nod to her husband's family – 'half of them are from there' – and in part a neat way to avoid the conundrum of who to invite had they married in her native Australia. 'I'd have had to invite the entire country,' she laughs. 'On that little island we could keep it private and beautiful.'Delta is a national treasure Down Under. After signing a record deal with Sony at just 15, she's gone on to sell eight million albums worldwide, with Top Ten hits galore. Dani, meanwhile, may not quite have grown up in the public eye – she first sprang to fame by winning Love Island in 2018 – but as the daughter of the irrepressible, near-national treasure that is Danny Dyer, she is hardly a stranger to the limelight.More recently, father and daughter have cemented themselves in the nation's affections with comedy documentary series The Dyers' Caravan Park, which follows the duo as they try to revive a family-run holiday park on the Isle of Sheppey. Longstanding presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have stepped down after an 11-year partnership, with Josh Widdicombe, Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe replacing themThe show was a surprise hit, and they've been filming series two over the summer. Dani says working with her dad has been a hoot.'We get on so well together – we really bounce off one another,' she says. 'He's like a naughty schoolboy and I'm constantly having to rein him in.'Delta's success is all the more impressive given the health problems she's endured. Aged just 18 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system – just as her debut album topped the Australian charts.She required surgery to remove the tumours, followed by months of gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy before she was told she was in remission.Then, in October 2018, surgery to remove a salivary gland led to the paralysis of a nerve in her tongue, leaving her unable to speak, let alone sing. Just months later she was due to appear as a coach on The Voice Australia, where she'd worked since 2012. 'In that five months I was having to go to speech therapy every day to get everything to start to work again, which thankfully it has,' she says now. 'The worst thing was that you don't know if it'll be two months or a year. You can't fight it, you have to just keep working with it so you can heal.'Lots of work lies ahead of course, and Delta has little time for those who carp that professional performers have a natural advantage on Strictly. 'Yes I'm on stage, but you'd seldom find videos of me dancing unless it's being playful,' she says. 'My family and friends would say I'm a committed dancer, but whether that's good or bad is yet to be determined. I would say my signature dance move is a hair flick!'I didn't even know there was a difference between Latin and ballroom going into this. But when I was at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow recently my driver was a Scottish ballroom dance champion so he showed me a couple of moves.'Dani, meanwhile, was hit with her own accusations of unfair advantage last year after it emerged she'd attended weekend stage school as a girl, retorting that she stopped dancing as a teenager and had little memory of those childhood lessons. Strictly Come Dancing series 24 launches on Saturday at 7.25pm on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer (pictured: Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke)Either way, after that painful ankle fracture few are likely to begrudge her a second chance.However the two of them fare, there'll be lots of encouragement from the sidelines.Dani's mum Joanne and dad Danny will be in the audience cheering on their daughter at the launch, while Delta's in-laws are coming over and will be doing the same for her.As it turns out, Strictly fever runs in both families. 'My mother-in-law's favourite show is Strictly, so she gave me all the lowdown,' Delta confides. 'They're very excited.'Which, given that Dani's own mother-in-law apparently 'manifested' her Strictly adventure in the first place, feels rather fitting.Strictly Come Dancing, Saturday, 7.25pm, BBC1 and BBC iPlayer.