Strictly’s Robin Windsor said show ‘destroyed’ him in heartbreaking suicide note

Robin Windsor was a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing until he was dropped in 2015 and now an inquest is going on into his tragic death aged 44 in 2024

Robin Windsor said he lived “permanently in a dark place” after being dropped from Strictly Come Dancing.

The late Strictly star died suddenly at the age of 44 in February 2024. An inquest into the death of the star has been opened, two years after he died.

The inquest heard that Windsor left a suicide note before he died. After he was discovered dead in his hotel bed by a receptionist, police and medics were called to the Hoxton in West London. PC Emily Hampson said she found two notes near him.

One note was addressed to his ex, Ollie Augustin, in which Windsor told him that his suicide was not Augustin’s fault. In the second, Windsor wrote that being axed from Strictly in 2015 left him devastated and claimed the way he was treated “destroyed me”.

He wrote: “This all really started when I lost my job on Strictly and have been fighting it ever since.

“The way they treated me destroyed me… It started me on the road I’m still on. All I wanted from life was to be happy. I loved my job more than anyone else.”

He said that the “heartache, the loneliness, the constant sadness” all got to be “too much”. “I just live permanently in a dark place,” Windsor said. “I just can’t live like this anymore. It’s just too painful.

“I had a good run, I’ve done some incredible things in my 44 years and had an unreal life doing what I loved, but all things must come to an end, and my curtain has come down for the final time.”

Windsor danced on Strictly between 2010 and 2013, during which time he danced with Patsy Kensit, Anita Dobson, Lisa Riley and Deborah Meaden. However, he suffered a back injury that required surgery in 2013.

He was forced to sit out on the 2014 series of Strictly while he recovered. But the following year, Strictly bosses chose not to bring him back.

The inquest heard that a post-mortem ruled Windsor’s death was likely an overdose on drugs and alcohol. His friend and former Strictly colleague, Kristina Rihanoff, told the hearing that the “psychological impact” of leaving Strictly was “very severe” as he “couldn’t do what he loved” due to his back pain. She added that is was “heartbreaking” to see him so “sad, subdued and burdened”.

Former Strictly executive producer Louise Rainbow said Windsor was among three stars dropped ahead of the 2015 series and that though he was “very disappointed” when he was told, his reaction did not cause her concern and that it “wasn’t that different” to the other dancers.

Rainbow said that Windsor was offered work on the Strictly Christmas special and the spin-off, It Takes Two, both of which he accepted. She described him as a “joy to work with”.

Windsor’s ex-boyfriend, Marcus Collins, also testified. Through a witness statement read out by the assistant coroner, he said that Windsor was inconsolable at being axed from the show. He said: “The day he was informed he was no longer required really broke his spirit.”

His aunt, Alison Windsor, said he was “absolutely devastated”. She said on Monday (February 10): “He lived for dancing, breathed it, slept it. That was his vocation in life.

“Being called for Strictly is every professional dancer’s dream. I think things started with his back problems, when he was told he wasn’t required again. I do honestly 100 per cent believe that was the start of Robin’s decline.”

In another written statement, Windsor’s former dance partner Deborah Meaden said the last time she’d heard from him was a year before he died. She said: “We talked about his mental health problems, but he had come through the bad times and had plans for the future.”

The hearing also heard that Windsor has told his ex, Ollie Augustin, that he “would kill himself”. Augustin said Windsor was on suicide watch over Christmas 2023 and that “he’d say things like he would kill himself if he couldn’t be with me”. However, one of the notes insisted that this was not the reason Windsor killed himself.

The inquest continues. Daily Star has contacted Strictly Come Dancing.

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