Former Strictly dancer Kristina Rihanoff has shared news of her weight struggles and the impact it has had on her daughter.
Kristina made her Strictly debut in 2008 and remained on the show until 2015. While she radiated confidence on the dancefloor, she has revealed she was deeply insecure with her body.
Kristina was convinced she was ‘fat’
While on Strictly, Kristina was a size 6 and weighed 8st 11lb. At the time, she was convinced she was “fat” and took part in diets to keep her weight down. In rehearsals, tough routines would make her faint.
“Watching myself on the show, seeing myself next to beautiful girls like Natalie Lowe and Iveta Lukosiute, who were super slim and super tall, I always felt I needed to be thinner,” she told The Sun.
“I felt so inadequate and fat. In my head I needed to lose weight and was always finding ways to have less calories,” Kristina continued.
Naturally a size 10, she slimmed down to a size 6. Kristina blamed internet trolls who would say cruel things about her body for fuelling her insecurities. “People would say: ‘Look at her shape, she shouldn’t be wearing a dress like that’, or ‘That looks totally wrong on her body’,” she said. As a result, Kristina would “just see a fat person on screen”.
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The impact it’s had on her daughter
At just seven years old, Kristina’s daughter Mila, who she shares with Ben Cohen, already has her own insecurities with food.
While feeding her dinner, Mila told her mum that she didn’t want to eat fries because she “might be fat if I do”.
Kristina stated that she doesn’t talk about food or weight “like that” in her household and believed her daughter had seen something on television.
With so much access to opinions on social media, Kristina is “conscious about what she will be exposed to online”.
With her own struggles on the dancefloor, Kristina is also concerned about her daughter wanting to follow in her footsteps. She said she is worried “about her being body conscious to the point she deprives herself like I did”.
Read more: Strictly fans beg BBC to bring back Kristina Rihanoff after appearance on It Takes Two
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