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Ulrika Jonsson has revealed she was in the running to present Strictly Come Dancing but was forced to pull out in favour of Tess Daly because she was pregnant at the time.
The presenter, 56, who has four children said that despite her enthusiasm, she had to turn down the offer because filming was not due to start for a few weeks, when she was about to give birth.
Write in The sun, She said: ‘I had no choice but to turn the offer down, and it was heartbreaking.’
Tess Daly later presented Strictly Come Dancing, alongside TV veteran Bruce Forsyth, before Claudia Winkleman replaced Bruce as Tess’ co-host when he quit the show in 2014.
MailOnline has contacted representatives from Strictly Come Dancing.
Ulrika Jonsson has revealed she was in line to present Strictly Come Dancing but had to pull out because she was pregnant at the time
Because the presenter, 56 and mother of four, was just weeks away from giving birth when filming began, she had to say no, meaning the job went to Tess Daly (pictured)
Ulrika, who presented Gladiators from 1992 to 2000, also revealed that she had to ‘fight to the limit’ to keep her job while pregnant, during the third season of the entertainment game show.
The Swedish presenter claimed that producers considered a pregnant woman “too risky”.
She wrote: ‘They refused to let me present the last two weeks of international shows and hired a midwife to follow me around with a chair so I could sit between takes.
“I wasn’t sick. I was only six months pregnant.”
Ulrika went on to say that there is never a good time for a woman to take a break from work and have a child.
She added that raising a child is “not a break” and women worry about returning to work, making the whole thing nerve-wracking.
She said: ‘When we as women take extended periods of ‘off’ work, we run the risk of falling behind on promotions or being considered for other positions. That is, if your employer hasn’t written you off and cleared your desk by the time you get back.’
Ulrika’s column follows Jodie Marsh’s revelation that she felt bullied by the former TV weather girl after she made fun of her appearance.
Tess Daly later presented Strictly Come Dancing, alongside TV veteran Bruce Forsyth, before Claudia Winkleman replaced Bruce as Tess’s co-host when he quit the show in 2014 (pictured together in 2004)
Ulrika, who presented Gladiators from 1992 to 2000, also claimed that producers found a pregnant woman “too risky”
She added that she had to fight “tooth and nail” to keep her job while pregnant during the third season of the entertainment game show
Speaking to MailOnline, former glamour model Jodie, who has swapped fame for an animal shelter, said she first struggled with trolls over her appearance when Ulrika wrote a ‘nasty’ column about her in the now-defunct News Of The World.
Jodie, 45, recalled: ‘It was the most disgusting thing I’d ever read about my physical appearance. She joked that she and her husband at the time couldn’t figure out if my nose was a trunk because it was so big and ugly.
“I was suicidal because I was being trolled, and I remember crying for days about it. It was the most disgusting thing. I had never met the woman before and it was so inappropriate. It was just straight up harassment.”
Jodie was so shocked by the column that she decided to write to Ulrika, 56, but says she has not received a response.