Oti Mabuse says it was a tough decision to leave her one-year-old baby at home to go into the jungle - but she wants to be "adventurous" again as she returns to work.
The former Strictly Come Dancing winning pro and Dancing On Ice judge gave birth at the end of last year but the baby was born prematurely with an infection and spent six weeks in intensive care after Oti developed sepsis during pregnancy. After the birth of her daughter - whose name they have never revealed - the baby wouldn't eat at times and so leaving her in the UK to head to Australia less than a year after her recovery is a big move.
But Oti, 34, said: “Now I have had my baby daughter, I want to get back to the adventurous and fun Oti. I feel ready for a change and doing something completely different. I will have no make-up, concealer, lashes – it’s going to be nice to be laid back.”
She added: “I’d like to think I will be a comfort mum in camp. I can listen to stories, motivate and hopefully entertain everyone with a bit of dancing. I hope to teach everyone a few moves. We will create our own talent show in the jungle.” Oti is the only pro to win Strictly two years in a row in 2019 and 2020 with Kelvin Fletcher and then Bill Bailey.
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ITV)She went on to become a judge on Dancing On Ice. She married Romanian dancer Marius in 2014 after meeting in Germany. She added: “As a new mum, I am going to use it to my advantage, I am going to catch up on a whole year’s sleep! Of course not seeing my daughter is going to be hard.
"She is going to be one of my biggest motivators. My husband is really excited I am doing the programme. He loves the show too. "This is one of the shows where it is really nice to be determined, ambitious and competitive when it comes to doing a challenge. It will be about getting the stars.”
In a joint interview with her husband last month, Oti also admitted she finds it hard not to blame herself for the premature birth and was full of praise for the nursing team at London’s University College Hospital for saving their baby. She told podcast We Need To Talk: "In South Africa and Romania, they don't help children who are born as young as she was, so we were very, very lucky.
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BBC/Guy Levy)"The pregnancy itself was beautiful, it was amazing but I had a spontaneous birth where we were going shopping and my waters just broke in the middle of the street. Because I didn't have any experience of birth it didn't seem traumatic at the time.
"Afterwards I felt that was intense. And when you look at milestones of premature babies, I have to be very, very understanding. The trauma came after." Oti was born and raised in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, while her fellow pro dancer husband Marius Lepure was born in Satu Mare, Romania, in north-west Transylvania.
* I'm A Celebrity will launch on Sunday (November 17) at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
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