Former Strictly professional Oti Mabuse has defended her decision to let her daughter star in the jungle, insisting: ‘Mum has goals too.’
The 34-year-old star, who will be appearing on I’m A Celeb for at least two weeks, said: “She won’t remember, it’s only a few days.”
It comes 13 months after the ‘traumatic’ birth of her only child, in which she was born 28 weeks premature and had to spend six weeks in ICU.
The professional dancer continued, “I think it’s nice for her to see that mom is fully committed and loves her so much, but also wants to do what she wants to do.
“Mom has goals too, and I think it’s something we can all be proud of as moms, that we can be great people and achieve our goals or do things that are fun for us.
Former Strictly professional Oti Mabuse has defended her decision to leave her daughter, who has been at home for 13 months, as she flies to Australia to star in I’m A Celebrity…
The 34-year-old star, who will appear on I’m A Celeb for at least two weeks, said: ‘She won’t remember, it’s just a few days’ (pictured with her daughter)
“And when she grows up, she’ll Google me, and she’ll probably see it and say, yeah, my mom did that.”
The sister of Strictly’s judge, Motsi Mabuse, who is from South Africa, revealed she had been asked by ITV six times to appear on the show, but chose this year before her daughter becomes too old to leave behind.
She said: ‘I’ll probably never do it again. I’ll never get the chance to do it again. I would like to grow my family. I would like to do other things. And so this was the year for me to do it, and it just felt right.”
Ms Mabuse is the only professional dancer to win Strictly Come Dancing two years in a row, first in 2019 with soap star Kelvin Fletcher and in 2020 with comedian Bill Bailey.
After seven years on the show, Ms Mabuse quit the BBC’s flagship show in 2022 as she wanted to pursue more presenting roles, but also revealed her struggles behind the scenes of Strictly.
Mrs Mabuse praised her husband of ten years who stayed with her while she was on the show, saying: “He has seen me not eating, he has seen me eating too much, he has seen me interacting with interesting personalities.
“I got to the point where I was like, ‘I think I’m done,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I think there’s something new that has a fire in your stomach. When you receive people or talk to people, you are a completely different person.’
Since her departure, Ms Mobuse has shifted her alliance to ITV, having appeared on the judging panel for the network’s major shows such as Dancing on Ice and the Masked Singer.
It comes 13 months after the ‘traumatic’ birth of her only child, in which she was born 28 weeks premature and had to spend six weeks in ICU
The professional dancer continued, “I think it’s nice for her to see that mom is fully committed and loves her so much, but also wants to do what she wants to do.”
And now she’s entering the I’m A Celebrity jungle next Sunday.
Before admitting her preference for ITV, she said: “I was really lucky at the time that just after winning my second title [on Strictly]ITV, their arms were open and they said, ‘Hey, come in.’
“So when I was jumping, there was a place to land. Even though I left, there was a whole world, a new family, that had opened doors for me and that is happiness and I have to be honest about that, I have to be grateful for that.’