Dancing on Ice star Oti Mabuse says she feels a pressure to be slim on TV since leaving Strictly Come Dancing, where she says she was accepted as a “curvy” dancer.
The 32-year-old, who starts hosting her own ITV weekend breakfast show on Saturday, has become more conscious of her body shape since quitting the BBC1 hit.
She says: “I’m never going to be size zero. I think I was relatable for a lot of women because all the girls [on Strictly] are really petite.
“Only when I didn’t dance any more and you could see me sit and you’d be like, ‘Oh, she’s got boobs. Oh, she’s curvy.’
“People would comment on my body and say something about what I look like.”
But she says the pressure to be slim on TV “doesn’t come from people saying anything, it’s from what you see”.
She tells The Times: “You don’t see a lot of curvy younger women. And if that’s the trend, should I be following the trend? If that’s what brands are pushing, if that’s the people who get the big shows, if that’s what they look like, you think it’s the standard. It plays in your subconscious.”
But Oti says she does not put pressure on herself to be any particular size.
She says: “I’m a woman, I’m in my thirties. When people saw me dancing I was 20.
“I’m not trying to look a certain way. I’m healthy, I’m happy and I’m alive.”
The pro dancer lifted the Glitterball trophy twice in her seven years on Strictly, in 2019 with ex-Emmerdale star Kevin Fletcher and again the following year with comedian Bill Bailey.
The star, who wed dancer Marius Iepure in 2014, previously told how her body shape changed after Strictly, saying: “My body just doesn’t burn as fast.”
