Katie Hind

2024 was an exceptional year for Katie Hind. She led the industry’s coverage of the torrid scandals that nearly brought down Strictly Come Dancing in its 20th anniversary year.

After a series of shocking allegations by Amanda Abbington against her former dance partner Giovanni Pernice, Katie bravely dissected the truth from claim, counter-claim and vested interest.

She revealed a bombshell 28-minute tape in which Abbington had previously repeatedly thanked her Strictly partner, and which helped exonerate the Italian against the most serious bullying allegations.

It was a crucial turning point in the Strictly saga, with Katie’s unrelenting investigative skills and hard-won contacts allowing her to expose the real story.

Again, the trust in which Katie is held in the showbiz world proved key to securing the interview that everyone else wanted: the first and only print interview with Giovanni.

Her constant hunger to inform readers about what celebrities and their minders don’t want published also led her to reveal that fellow Strictly dancer Graziano Di Prima had been sacked by the BBC after he subjected celebrity partner Zara McDermott to kicking, spitting and verbal abuse.

Katie, too, set the agenda on the split of TV’s golden couple, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, after almost three decades together.

First, she beat her rivals to reveal the split. Then, Katie provided the definitive inside story in The Mail on Sunday. Very different from what was contained in the PR-managed ‘joint statement’ that Langsford had posted, Katie wrote that Holmes had been blindsided by the news and left devastated by the break-up.

She continued to lead the story of the messy divorce with the bizarre exclusive that Langsford had reeked revenge on wheelchair-user Holmes (after he was seen holidaying with a young new girlfriend), by removing the stairlift from their marital home.

Meanwhile, with ITV bosses hoping the tawdry Phillip Schofield crisis that engulfed the channel might blow over, Katie disclosed that the disgraced presenter had gagged his young lover with an NDA in exchange for a large sum of money.

Katie’s journalism is testament to her skill in ruthlessly deconstructing the carefully crafted narratives of PR managers, and, instead, providing readers with an endless stream of unvarnished exclusives inside the biggest showbusiness stories.