Strictly Come Dancing can be a stressful experience for many contestants – and one star who found the BBC series too much was Louise Redknapp.
Redknapp, who recently opened up about her time with pop group Eternal, appeared on the series in 2016, finishing in second place alongside her dance partner Kevin Clifton.
But unbeknownst to viewers, the singer almost didn’t make it to week two after she begged her agent to get her removed from the series
Redknapp said that she suffered a crisis of confidence having stepped away from the spotlight before taking part in the dancing competition, revealing her “muscle memory for being in the limelight” had vanished.
She also said she felt belittled by the confidence levels displayed by the professional female dancers featured on the show.
The singer told Spooning with Mark Wogan: “I was looking at the other girls and they were shaking their bums and I literally came off the first show, rung my agent and went ‘You’ve got to get me out of here.”
Redknapp even suggested that they fake an injury to get herself eliminated from the series.
“This week you can pretend I’ve broken an ankle,” the singer told her agent.
Addressing the fact she was once named the Sexiest Woman of the 1990s by FHM, Redknapp said she thought to herself after week one: “I am definitely not the sexiest woman of the decade anymore.”
Redknapp, who was 42 at the time, suggested she finds it more difficult to shake fear with age, adding: “The fear had come in and I think when I was younger, I was completely fearless. I gave everything a go.”
But she soon found her groove, and sailed through the competiton to the final. She was beaten to the Glitterball trophy by Ore Oduba.
The singer recently told The Independent that she “felt really lost” during her time in 1990s pop group Eternal.
“I didn’t feel like I was adding anything. My confidence was low. All I’d ever wanted to be was a pop star and I was miserable.”
Talking about her decision to leave the band, she continued: “I knew I was really sad. I was in my early twenties, and you shouldn’t be sad at that stage in your life.”
However, ultimately, she realised quitting was a “strong” thing to do.
Redknapp appeared on Strictly the same year as Laura Whitmore, who found herself caught up in the scandal to have rocked the show in the last year.
Whitmore was partnered with Giovanni Pernice, who was accused of bullying by Amanda Abbington in 2024. The Love Island host said she “raised concerns” at the time, but thought she was alone.
In an Instagram story shared last July, Whitmore wrote: “I was trying not to comment on recent press speculation until the BBC review is complete but feel there is a lot of misinformation in the press and I want to help and show support by setting the record straight.”
“I initially raised concerns back in 2016,” she wrote. “I thought my experience was specific to me but I’ve since learned I was wrong.
“The aim of this is to show a pattern of behaviour that I believe needs to stop.”
She said: “I am not looking for anything, just an acceptance that what happened to me in the rehearsal rooms during my time on BBC Strictly was wrong and that it won’t happen to anyone else again.”
Whitmore did not name any specific names but said she was providing evidence of her experience to support the BBC’s investigation.
Pernice denied all allegations of abusive or threatening behaviour while the BBC upheld some, but not all, of the complaints made, and issued an apology to Abbington.
