Denise Van Outen had to have "major surgery" after she injured herself on Strictly Come Dancing.
The television presenter took part in the BBC One ballroom and Latin show in 2012, and after a fall with her professional partner James Jordan, she managed to slip three discs into her spinal cord.
After the horror injury, Denise still performed in the show's final, but she had to undergo surgery, which has left her with a scar on her throat, something she is regularly asked about by concerned fans.
She kept her injury and operation private, but opens up about it in her new biography.
Speaking on Channel 4's Steph's Packed Lunch, she said: "I've got a scar on my neck - whenever I do live TV I always get messages saying 'what's the scar? Have you got a thyroid problem? You need to get checked for cancer', but actually it's from an injury I had years ago just after Strictly Come Dancing.
"I fell on my head and slipped three discs into my spinal cord, so I had quite major surgery. Now it's all out in the open I don't have to make excuses. It was such a personal thing for me at the time, quite a major surgery with quite a lot of rehabilitation, so I kept it private. It just wasn't something I wanted to put out there, but now that it is out there I feel good about it, I'm alright."
She admits it is tough being constantly quizzed about the scar, especially since social media makes celebrities so accessible now.
"It is hard – you have those personal niggles you're self conscious about and you still want to do your job and love what you do," she confessed on the lunchtime show, "But it's after with social media, people have direct contact with you and they always have something to say and sometimes you're not ready to discuss it openly."
Denise previously admitted she was concerned she wouldn't be able to sing again as her voice box had to be taken out.
"They were worried I would never be able to sing again, because you can get hoarse voice after an operation like that," she said recently, "The rehabilitation was quite a long time, but I kept it very private just because as much as I’m out there and I talk about things, there are some things in my life that I do like to keep private.
"I wasn’t looking for public sympathy, I just wanted to heal on my own."
