Behind Anton Du Beke’s infectious smile and larger-than-life television personality lies a deeply personal family story filled with pain, uncertainty and, ultimately, extraordinary joy.

The Strictly Come Dancing star has spoken movingly about watching his wife, Hannah Summers, live with endometriosis — a chronic condition that complicated their hopes of becoming parents and led the couple down an emotionally demanding path through IVF.

For Anton, one of the hardest parts was knowing just how much Hannah wanted to become a mother while seeing her face a condition that could make that dream far more difficult.

He recalled watching Hannah with her nephews and immediately recognising the warmth and kindness that made him believe she would be a wonderful mother.

“I knew I wanted to be with her,” Anton previously explained, describing how naturally caring she was around children.

But that happiness came with a painful question: why should someone who seemed so perfectly suited to motherhood have to face such an uncertain journey to get there?

Anton described the situation as “cruel,” struggling to understand why Hannah had been forced to endure a chronic condition while also confronting fears about whether she would ever have children of her own.

The couple eventually turned to IVF — a process Anton has admitted opened his eyes to the enormous physical and emotional burden women can experience during fertility treatment.

For Hannah, it meant injections, bruising, anxiety and the relentless uncertainty that can accompany each stage of treatment.

For Anton, it meant standing beside the woman he loved while feeling painfully unable to take that burden away from her.

“All I can do is hold your hand,” he said while reflecting on the experience.

The dancer admitted that discussing their IVF journey still makes him emotional.

He remembered watching Hannah endure injections in her stomach, thigh and elsewhere, while he desperately searched for ways to help.

“You feel so inadequate and you want to do so much more,” he explained.

His words revealed a very different side to the entertainer audiences have known for years — not the smiling performer beneath the ballroom lights, but a husband watching someone he loves go through an exhausting medical journey and wishing he could carry some of that pain himself.

Thankfully, their story eventually brought the moment they had hoped for.

Their IVF treatment was successful on their first attempt, and in 2017 Anton and Hannah welcomed their twins, George and Henrietta.

The arrival of their children transformed years of uncertainty into something extraordinary.

Anton and Hannah also married in 2017, beginning a new chapter as husband and wife while embracing life as parents to their long-awaited twins.

Looking back, Anton’s reflections are filled not only with gratitude but also with enormous admiration for Hannah and other women who undergo fertility treatment.

“You girls are extraordinary,” he said as he reflected on the injections, stress and physical demands involved in IVF.

His experience also changed the way he viewed women’s health.

Anton has admitted that he previously knew very little about endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body and can cause significant pain and fertility difficulties.

After witnessing Hannah’s experience firsthand, he became more vocal about the importance of greater awareness and investment in women’s health.

Today, photographs of Anton and Hannah with George and Henrietta show the joyful ending to a journey that was once filled with enormous uncertainty.

But behind those family smiles is a story Anton has never forgotten.

It is a story of a woman enduring pain and uncertainty in pursuit of motherhood, a husband wishing he could do more than simply hold her hand, and a couple refusing to give up on the family they dreamed of creating.

For Anton, becoming a father was never something he could take for granted.

Perhaps that is why, years later, speaking about the journey can still bring all those emotions rushing back.

Behind the glitter of Strictly and the laughter audiences know so well, there remains something far more personal: profound gratitude for Hannah, admiration for what she endured, and two children who made one of their greatest hopes finally come true.