Michaela Strachan admits she rarely washes her hands and only showers every three DAYS after living through a South African drought: ‘We’re way too clean, all of us’

Michaela Strachan has revealed she only showers twice a week, rarely washes her hands and once got a worm under her skin after eating a sandwich with dirty fingers.

The TV personality, a household name thanks to roles in Springwatch and The Real Wild Show, moved to South Africa with partner Nick Chevallier in 2002.

Based in Cape Town, Strachan welcomed son Oliver – her only child with Chevallier, a cinematographer and producer – in 2005 and has since adopted a casual attitude to personal hygiene.

The presenter, 58, appeared on Monday’s edition of Loose Women – filmed at The Eden Project to mark Earth Day – and admitted her laissez-faire approach to cleanliness stemmed from the need to save water while in South Africa lived during a drought.

When asked if she considers herself a “nature girl” because of her harsh environment, she said, “I think when you have kids, when they come home really dirty, you know they’ve had a good day.

The TV personality, a household name thanks to roles in Springwatch and The Real Wild Show, moved to South Africa with partner Nick Chevallier in 2002

‘I’m not the kind of mother who looks at a child and thinks, “Oh, let them wash.” It’s like no, you had a great day, you got in trouble, you’re dirty, brilliant. ‘

Strachan also admitted that she isn’t picky when it comes to basic hygiene, adding, “I’m not picky about washing hands and stuff like that, I think we’re way too clean, all of them.”

“I lived through a country with big, big droughts, so we learned to only shower every three days.”

The presenter also recalled an unsavory hygiene-related incident where she got a bug under her skin while filming with a group of animals.

She said: ‘I did a lot of work in zoos at the time, so I was in cages and I was with animals, and I didn’t wash my hands properly. Then I ate a sandwich. So it was from animal feces that I ended up with a worm stuck under my skin.

‘It was itchy and then I had my partner take a picture and you could see a worm under the skin.’

Asked if she was ‘panicked’ by the situation, she added: ‘I became quite attached to this man – literally! I ended up giving him a little name, you know, ‘Willem the Worm’.

‘So I had some worm tablets to get rid of it [but it] haven’t touched it.’

The presenter appeared on Loose Women on Monday – filmed at The Eden Project to mark Earth Day – and admitted her laissez-faire habits came from living in South Africa during a drought

“I’m not picky about washing hands and things like that, I think we’re all way too clean,” she told the panel

The presenter also recalled an unsavory hygiene-related incident where she got a bug under her skin while filming with a group of animals.

Strachan revealed she had ‘no symptoms’, adding: ‘Six months later it was still there. It didn’t affect me in any way. It was a symbiotic relationship between me and the worm.

“I took a double dose of worm tablets, I had to end the love affair.”

The presenter recently admitted she ‘forgot she had cancer’ until a friend ‘reminded her to celebrate the ten-year anniversary since her diagnosis’.

Strachan’s world was turned upside down when she discovered she had breast cancer in 2014 and underwent a double mastectomy.

But in what was one of her darkest periods, Strachan said she wanted to “celebrate” the ten-year decade since her cancer scare.

In conversation with OK! magazine, she said: ‘Someone had to remind me of this, but it’s been ten years since I was afraid of cancer. They said, “Are you going to celebrate?” and I suddenly thought, “Oh my god, I should do that!”

‘Stupidly enough, I hadn’t thought about it, because I actually forget that I had cancer.’

She added: “I’m a survivor and I know how lucky I am.”