‘Dancing with the Stars’ U.K. Judge Reveals He Was ‘Stabbed’ & ‘Robbed’ on Vacation

Australian–British dancer Craig Revel Horwood, who serves as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, the U.K.’s version of Dancing with the Stars, has opened up about a traumatic vacation in Spain.

The famed choreographer spoke about the ordeal on the August 4 edition of the Judgemental podcast, revealing he was once “stabbed” while visiting Madrid. Speaking to his cohost and fellow Strictly judge, Anton Du Beke, Revel Horwood sarcastically recalled, “I went on holiday in Madrid and got stabbed… That was nice.”

“My jewelry was stolen as well; they ripped my necklace off my neck and gave me a big burn mark,” he continued, per People.

Revel Horwood, a former dancer and drag queen, said he was heading home from a nightclub at around 2:00 in the morning when he was attacked by an individual carrying a razor blade. The assailant slashed Revel Horwood across the stomach and stole his necklace.

“I remember I was dancing at the Lido in Paris, and we went to Madrid for a holiday, so that ended up pretty bad,” he continued.

He noted that the “horrific” incident left him looking disheveled, which caused him issues when returning to France. “I got strip-searched,” he explained. “I hadn’t shaved, so I did look a bit of a wreck. I’d been stabbed, I had burn marks all around my neck from where I was, like, attacked.”

“And then the French strip-searched me down to literally nothing,” Revel Horwood added, noting, “They were looking for drugs.”

He didn’t specify when the vacation occurred or if he reported the incident. However, he previously told Virgin Radio that he worked at the Lido de Paris when he was 23, which would place the year around 1988.

Revel Horwood also opened up about another “horrendous” experience during a visit to Africa.

“I remember flying to Mombasa in Kenya. It was all fabulous. I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going on safari, that’s going to be nice,'” he recalled. “Got out there, arrived, all the hotels and everything were paid for in advance, and they’re giving us a bus from the airport to the hotel, and they said on arrival, ‘Your hotel has burnt down.’”

He also said multiple people got salmonella poisoning the night before returning home. “One by one, when we’re standing in the queue at the airport, people just were falling to the ground, literally dropping, like boom,” he shared.

Revel Horwood has been a judge on the BBC competition series since its inception in 2004, appearing across 23 seasons and 560 episodes as of March 2026.