Strictly made me breakdown in the shower fully clothed – my husband saved me from my lowest point, confesses Oti Mabuse

STRICTLY Come Dancing prima Oti Mabuse has revealed however she became truthful consumed by moving connected the personage creation contention that she "wasn't truly in" her ain marriage, and ended up breaking down successful the ablution afloat clothed.

Opening up to narration manager Paul Carrick Brunson connected his podcast We Need To Talk, Oti describes physically and emotionally detaching from her husband, Romanian dancer Marius Lepure, erstwhile she joined the deed BBC1 show, a twelvemonth aft they joined successful 2014.

She says: “Strictly is not a TV show. It's a manner choice. It is each you deliberation astir 24/7. It’s each you do. You're connected tour, you’re doing different Strictly-associated shows. You're not truly 100% successful the marriage, due to the fact that this is gold. The trophy is handmade, by the way, and you're fixated connected it.

“[During Strictly]. I didn't pass with my friends, I didn't pass with my family, I didn't pass with my husband. It was conscionable this 1 extremity that I wanted to execute so, so, so, truthful so much."

The 8 times Latin creation champion, who has a grade successful civilian engineering, adds: “It was a batch astir maine successful those years.”

Oti met Marius, 42, successful 2012 astatine a creation proceedings successful Nuremberg, Germany - wherever helium was besides moving a creation schoolhouse - aft she travelled from her location successful Pretoria, South Africa, successful hunt of a caller nonrecreational creation partner.

Speaking to Celebs Go Dating and Married At First Sight emotion guru Paul, Oti recalls however Marius declared his emotion for her wrong a week of meeting, past projected aft 2 years. The mates worked unneurotic connected the 2015 bid of Let's Dance, the German instrumentality connected Strictly Come Dancing, earlier conducting a agelong region narration aft Oti relocated to London to articulation the UK show.

Appearing alongside his woman connected the podcast, which goes unrecorded contiguous [Tuesday] astatine 6pm, Marius says helium understood first-hand what the occupation required for her to win.

Recalling a clip helium flew into London Stansted from Germany earlier hiring a car and making a 500-mile circular travel to Blackpool for the briefest of reunions with Oti, Marius said:  “We were virtually unneurotic for 3 oregon 4 hours and she was like, ‘I person to sleep, I’m sorry’ and I was ‘Okay, let's conscionable cuddle for a fewer hours’ and that was it.

“I’m successful that business. I knew what it takes to beryllium a palmy dancer and choreographer successful a amusement similar that, truthful it was thing new. But evidently it's pugnacious and it hurts and it's not the easiest clip but you spot the extremity of the tunnel"

Ultimately, Oti’s hard enactment paid off.

In 2019 she finished successful archetypal spot alongside ex Emmerdale histrion Kelvin Fletcher earlier securing triumph again 1 bid aboriginal with comedian Bill Bailey - the first-ever pro dancer to assistance the coveted Glitterball trophy 2 years consecutively.

Prior to that, Oti says she had been astatine her “lowest” ebb portion partnering “a celeb who I conscionable couldn’t get to emotion the occupation arsenic overmuch arsenic I wanted” and who she says she "couldn't teach"

One evening aft rehearsals, Marius returned location to find his woman afloat clothed, crumpled and breaking her bosom connected the level of the shower.

“It was the lowest moment,” Oti recalls.

“In my head, I felt, ‘I'm not bully enough. I'm not bully capable successful my job'. All of this unit that I [had] - I’m representing achromatic women. I'm representing African women. I basal for truthful overmuch - if I can't get this occupation done, I'm not bully enough. I don't merit to beryllium here’.

“[Marius] came in, helium got successful the shower, afloat clothed, helium picked maine up, and helium conscionable hugged maine and held me. He said, 'It's conscionable a job. You person family, you person friends, you person maine and you person food’.

“In that moment, I realised that nary substance however overmuch I person this vocation - and I emotion the amusement and everything it encompasses - astatine the extremity of the day, I get to spell location to the things that marque maine more. It is not who I am, it's what I do.”

Both large fans of mentoring, Oti and Marius promptly booked onto a Tony Robbins programme, wherever participants analyse identity, halfway emotions, intimate relationships and what drives their actions. The American aforesaid assistance fable has worked with everyone from Donald Trump and Bill Clinton to Oprah and the Kardashians.

“We needed to rebuild our priorities - oregon my priorities,” says Oti. “[At the Tony Robbins conference] they asked america what our priorities were, and however you database them and however your spouse lists them. My priorities [were] work, vocation and past emotion and his were love, enactment and career, and we had to power that out. We needed to wholly reorder that.”

Soon after, Oti’s mindset - and matrimony - had transformed.

Confirming that emotion is present “one 100 per cent” her apical priority, she says: “It took [until] the next series… for maine to autumn successful emotion with the occupation again successful a wholly antithetic way, to autumn successful emotion with my hubby again successful a wholly antithetic way, to beryllium much communicative with my friends and my family.

“That was the opening of the change. And past I crushed it! There was nary ablution crying anymore. Just aggregate trophies!”

Oti discontinue Strictly successful 2022 aft 7 years and went connected to go a justice connected Dancing On Ice positive big her ain dating amusement Romeo & Due earlier competing successful the latest bid of Great Celebrity Bake Off successful assistance of Stand Up to Cancer.

But it’s disconnected surface wherever her biggest relation has genuinely begun. Last November, 2 months prematurely, she and Marius welcomed their archetypal child, a babe miss who they person ne'er publically named.

Speaking astir her 16-hour commencement astatine London’s University College Hospital earlier their girl spent six weeks successful the intensive-care neonatal unit, Oti explains: “It was implicit Christmas and it felt similar the full federation was truthful happy. I was like, 'This is the worst constituent of my life, ever.”

Their babe was yet allowed location connected Christmas Eve and since falling into the groove of motherhood, Oti has realised she present regrets waiting truthful agelong to person a baby.

To Brunson’s question of what she would person done otherwise if she could rewind clip and relive her career, she replies: “I would person had my girl earlier. I'm not old. I’m 34, but I'm like, ‘Oh my God, I privation I had much time. I privation I had done this earlier.

"We’ve some ever wanted children. We travel from large families but due to the fact that of the dancing, my assemblage is however I wage for the bills truthful we needed to person the vocation to beryllium done and implicit with it to let ourselves to beryllium like, ‘this is the close clip for me’. I didn’t privation thing other but to person a family.”

According to Oti, she and Marius are “still figuring out” however to equilibrium work, parenting and life, which she admits is the biggest situation to their marriage, particularly with the lack of enactment from foreign-based family, including Oti’s Strictly justice sister Motsi, who lives lives adjacent Frankfurt, Germany with her hubby and young daughter.

“We are doing it, conscionable us. We don't person other help. We don't person immoderate household here. It's conscionable us. So clip is the challenge of us-time, his ain time, enactment time, household time, babe clip and that tin create, sometimes, conflicts.”

Yet alongside the grit, determination and resilience that runs done Oti’s veins, her matrimony to Marius is evidently 1 of the strongest and arsenic parents, she speaks warmly of the information they instrumentality connected an adjacent stock of responsibilities, which allows them to bring the champion of themselves to the array professionally and personally.

“If I'm working, if I'm promoting our circuit [Viva Carnival] and I person a week of back-to-back work, helium tin instrumentality the babe and question the world, and I'll inactive beryllium good with that,” says Oti. “We were some successful this unneurotic and it's great.”

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