Vick Hope has said she went into therapy after being “stressed, nervous and worried” while on Strictly Come Dancing.
The BBC Radio 1 presenter, 34, had spoken to Cosmopolitan UK about doing well on series 16 of the BBC One celebrity dance show until she was knocked out in a dance off.
She told the magazine: “You get so caught up in that bubble that you forget it’s an entertainment show that people love.
“I was so naive around that time; I was so stressed, nervous and worried. I was overthinking every single thing, ‘Are people going to think this dance is too sexy? Is this music choice too jarring for the older viewers?’
“I was trying to overcomplicate what was not complicated. It’s just a dance show; it’s just a bit of fun…something had to be the trigger (for starting therapy) and that was it, so I’m grateful for that chapter.”
While on Strictly in 2018, she said she was living alone, single, and needed someone to “offload” on.
Hope, who was working at Capital Breakfast at the time, said: “I was at a time in my life where I was really insecure.
“I didn’t think I was good enough, I was not kind to myself and I think it showed.”
She joined BBC Radio 1 in 2020 and last year co-hosted the Bafta’s red carpet show with film critic Ali Plumb.
Hope also said: “My relationships: with my brothers, parents, friends, husband…I think I can branch it out a little bit further to include the relationship I have with myself and the way I’ve built it over the last few years.
“It went from a dark place where I didn’t like myself and didn’t talk kindly to myself. Now I know my worth.”
She reportedly married DJ and record producer Calvin Harris in a lavish ceremony in September at Hulne Priory, near Alnwick, Northumberland.
Hope appeared to be wearing her wedding ring at Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year 2023 awards in November.
The full Vick Hope interview can be read in the Feb/March issue of Cosmopolitan UK, on sale from January 16 and available here cosmopolitan/uk/vick-hope.