Following her successful stint on Strictly Come Dancing, where she was runner-up to presenter Ore Oduba, Louise Redknapp's marriage to Jamie Redknapp ended. The couple divorced in December 2017 after 19 years of wedded bliss.
Speaking to Virgin Radio's Mark Wogan, Louise admitted that dealing with the painful process under the public eye was challenging: "I didn't find any of that easy at all, she said " she confessed, "I think anything personal in your life being made public is difficult, and I'm not someone that looks for publicity ... it's always found me."
The silver lining from her divorce at 45, she says, was the opportunity to return to her first love, music: "The kids were getting older, I was well aware I needed to find something for myself, I couldn't just keep on kind of just being there existing I'm an entertainer."
Louise's passion for entertainment led her to the esteemed Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, where she met future Eternal bandmate Kelle Bryan. Years later, she thought her dance training would make Strictly a walk in the park but she was in for a shock on her first day on the popular BBC1 show.
She reveals that her youthful confidence had vanished: "I was Miss Jazz-shoes growing up, so I thought 'I'm going to be absolutely fine at this,' and then I realised that having the kids and being away from the industry really had taken away my jazz hands.
"I had muscle memory for dancing but not muscle memory for being OK in the limelight I think that part had gone and the fear had come in."
She revealed that stage-fright had completely driven any idea of what she was supposed to be doing out of her head. Louise confessed that in that moment, she no longer felt like the young woman who had been voted sexiest woman of the decade in 2004.
"I was looking at the other girls and they were shaking their bums and they had like little knickers on," she said. "I literally came off the first show and called my agent and said: 'You've got to get me out of here'. They said: 'We can't you've just done the first show, don't be ridiculous'."
She begged her agent to pretend that she had broken her ankle, but they persuaded her to see it through.
It turned out to be the right decision. Together with professional partner Kevin Clifton, Louise made it all the way to the final: "I was just grateful to not being in a dance-off," she said.
Louise's focus, in the short term at least, is to relaunch her music career, with a new album her fifth coming in May.
"Right [my focus is] music," she said. "But I'd love to do the West End again. It was really good for me, the West End, because it gave me a real sense of security. It was hard as a mum, because kids of all ages need you to be present and when you're in the West End it it's tough."
English (United States) ·