Louise Redknapp has admitted she debated whether faking an injury to get out of Strictly Come Dancing.
The Eternal singer and former judge on the UK version of So You Think You Can Dance signed up to compete on Strictly in 2016.
Although she eventually reached the final with professional partner Kevin Clifton, Louise has now revealed she considered ways to quit the show.
Despite receiving one of the highest scores from the judges in the premiere episode, the now 50-year-old had been battling with being back in the limelight after a break.
‘I realised having the kids and being away from the industry really had taken away my jazz hands… …I was like, “Where are they?”,’ she said.
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‘I think [I had] muscle memory for dance, but not muscle memory for being in the limelight. I think that part had gone. The fear had come in and I think when I was younger, I was completely fearless. I gave everything a go.
‘That element of confidence and fearlessness – that had gone. Walking down that opening show and seeing, like, some of the other females in the show and they had their little dresses on, and they were so confident,’ she said on the Spooning with Mark Wogan podcast.
She continued: ‘I was looking at the other girls and they were shaking their bums, and I literally came off the first show, rung my agent and went: “You’ve got to get me out of here. This week you can pretend I’ve broken an ankle”.’
Reflecting on that first week on Strictly, Louise said she couldn’t help but second guess herself.
‘Week one comes, I’m at the top of the stairs, all the other girls have got a sparkly little outfit on, little knickers, high heels,’ she recalled.
‘I have got white jazz shoes and a sailor’s outfit in red. I was thinking: “I am definitely not the sexiest woman of the decade anymore in this”.’
Despite this, Louise managed to impress the judges and viewers, flying through to the final, which was eventually won by BBC sports presenter Ore Oduba.
However, it was the following year that Louise split from her husband, former footballer Jamie Redknapp.
The pair, who married in 1998 and shared two sons, announced they had separated in September 2017.
Last month Louise admitted she was shocked to be painted as the ‘villain’ in the aftermath of the split.
‘If I didn’t have my kids, I just, I think I would have just given up. I really do,’ she said on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast.
‘I think I just knew that my kids were my everything and they needed me.’
‘But I can honestly say, when you’re going through something so personal in your own turmoil in your own way, but then to get the barrage of judgment and nastiness. I never realised people could be so unkind and say such terrible things. I blew my mind.’
She went on to share she was pushed to ‘breaking point’ but had to try and keep a ‘brave face’.
Strictly Come Dancing is streaming on BBC iPlayer.
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