Debbie McGee Recounts Terrifying Escape From Iran During Revolution

Debbie McGee, former magician's assistant and a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, has shared harrowing details of her escape from Iran during the 1979 revolution. Then 18 years old, McGee had traveled to Tehran to join the Iranian National Ballet when the country was engulfed by violent upheaval.

McGee described Tehran at the time as a "vibrant, fast-moving place," but the atmosphere drastically changed with the outbreak of the revolution. She witnessed soldiers firing on university students and encountered "rioters around every corner." Her attempt to seek help at the British embassy proved futile, as she was turned away on the same day the embassy itself was attacked.

For three weeks, McGee and fellow ballet dancers hid, subsisting on "flatbreads," while her parents in the UK had no knowledge of her safety. Eventually, a friend from the Foreign Residence Bureau secured three plane tickets to Zurich, Switzerland.

Upon arriving at the airport with friends Julie and Gavin, McGee experienced intense fear when a guard questioned her visa, which she suspected had been altered. In her autobiography, she recounted bursting into tears and pleading to leave the country. The guard, showing her mercy, instructed her to "run" for the plane.

"I would get flashbacks to that run across the tarmac towards the plane, with the guards' machine guns trained upon us as we ran," McGee recalled. She added that she felt she held her breath until the plane departed, and even after being airborne, her heart continued to pound. Despite the terror, she was too stunned to cry. She reflected that the experience taught her she could survive, but she was "not meant to stay there."

Upon reaching Zurich, McGee was finally able to contact her parents, marking the first conversation they had in a month. She stated she "felt able to cry at last" upon hearing her father's voice.

Her parents were waiting for her when she safely returned to London. "I've never been hugged so hard," she said, recalling the intense fear of being killed and never seeing her family again. Years later, her father revealed the immense pain he and his wife endured, telling her, "we didn't know whether you were dead or alive."