Emotional moment Strictly star says she’s ‘lucky to be alive’ after armed robbery in America
STRICTLY star Saffron Barker has revealed she feels “lucky to be alive” following a traumatic armed robbery in America.
Saffron, 24, shared her harrowing experience in a candid TikTok make-up tutorial, explaining that she is currently stranded without any belongings and unable to leave the country.
She said: “I honestly can’t leave the US right now and everything I had with me was completely stolen.
“If I’m being honest, this trip has just not gone to plan at all. I’ve suffered the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”
What was meant to be a fresh start for Saffron and her model boyfriend Josh Miln, 23, quickly turned into a nightmare.
After a difficult period, the couple decided to try and salvage their trip with a road trip from Hollywood to Las Vegas.
Renting a Jeep, they set off vlogged their journey.
About two hours into the drive, the pair stopped at Peggy Sue’s Diner, a nostalgic spot Saffron had visited with her parents many years ago.
She admitted: “We were completely naive. There were lots of cars around, so we didn’t think anything bad could happen.”
But when they returned to their car after just half an hour inside, they found it completely smashed up.
Every single item inside was stolen – including their passports and Saffron’s medication.
She said tearfully: “It’s not just the material things. It’s everything we needed. We had nothing left, no ID, no medication, nothing.”
The incident was made worse by the fact the area was busy and yet no one seemed to intervene.
Josh added: “There were tourists everywhere, and apparently this happens almost every day. It’s crazy that there are no warning signs.”
Despite their shock and devastation, the couple are counting their blessings.
Saffron said: “I’m so grateful to be alive. They have guns in America, and something much worse could have happened. We keep telling ourselves that we should be grateful we’re still here.”
Their troubles didn’t end there.
With the car’s windows shattered, they had to drive it to Vegas to return it – and were met with suspicion at the hotel, where they were denied check-in multiple times because they had no physical ID.
Saffron explained: “We looked like we’d stolen the car. The hotel didn’t care about our situation and wouldn’t let us in.”
On top of that, the house they left behind in the UK was recently robbed – “the cherry on top,” Josh lamented.
Currently, Saffron and Josh are waiting for emergency passports, and face the daunting task of driving back to Los Angeles to retrieve them before their flights home from Vegas.
Saffron warned future travellers: “We won’t be stopping anywhere. If you ever decide to do a similar trip, please don’t stop off at places like that.”
It’s the latest blow for Saffron, who has endured a troubled 18 months.
In October, she was rushed to hospital with “shooting pains” after developing “rashes all over my body”.
Doctors had feared she’d caught a tropical disease from a mosquito after falling ill soon after returning home from a trip away.
Describing her symptoms, Saffron said: “I had all the symptoms (of a tropical disease) being, rashes all over my body, headache, body aches, shooting pains in my body, temperature, sore throat and ears etc.
“After getting my bloods taken turns out I didn’t have that but my white blood cells were half the number they should be so very low and therefore my whole body was trying to fight the infection.”
While in January last year, she had to be stretched off a ski slope after suffering a nasty fall.
Fast forward to this February and Saffron learned her ex-boyfriend, Louis Rees-Zammit, had moved on with a new woman that looked just like her a year after their split.
Saffron, who starred on the 17th series of Strictly with AJ Pritchard, shared a thinly-veiled swipe on TikTok after professional rugby player Louis shared holiday snaps with his new girl.
She didn’t say anything in the short clip, but used a snippet of Kendrick Lamar’s track Not Like Us for the audio.
Over the video, she wrote: “No revenge because I have quite frankly literally never heard anyone say something nice about you.”
Saffron then captioned it: “And Karma always get them.”