Love Island star Zara McDermott unveiled for Strictly 2023 line-up
The 26-year-old, who has made a sequence of TV documentaries since showing on the ITV courting present, was unveiled on BBC Radio 1 on Monday afternoon.
McDermott is the seventh contestant to be confirmed for the upcoming sequence of the dancing competitors after actress Amanda Abbington, Bad Education star Layton Williams, broadcaster Angela Rippon, journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, comic Eddie Kadi and Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon have been beforehand introduced.
Appearing on BBC Radio 1, the TV presenter revealed that she has been rewatching earlier episodes “analysing everything”.
“I am nervous, excited, every single emotion honestly – I cannot wait,” she added.
Since showing on Love Island in 2018, McDermott has made documentaries about revenge porn, sexual assault and disordered consuming for the BBC.
She famous that Strictly is “such a far cry” from her day job and feels that is the furthest she has ever pushed herself out of her personal consolation zone.
“I’ve been making documentaries now for the past three years and it’s such a tiny team and if I say the wrong thing during an interview I can redo it – but this is live, you cannot make a mistake,” she stated.
“You’ve got one take and one take only. This is just so far out of my comfort zone.
“I’ve done this throughout my whole 20s, I’ve just constantly thrown myself out of my comfort zone and this is just the pinnacle now.
“I cannot dance. Honestly, I have zero dance experience, to the point where I don’t even dance in a nightclub, I’m that petrified of how my body moves so this is going to be like the ultimate test for me.”
Despite her lack of dance expertise, she admitted she is “excited” for the theatrics of the present, including: “I feel like there’s not many times in life we get to just go on stage and act and be a character.”
McDermott additionally beforehand featured in Made In Chelsea alongside her boyfriend Sam Thompson, who’s a Hits Radio presenter and a panellist on Love Island’s Aftersun programme.
BBC Radio 1 presenter Jamie Laing, who competed on the 18th sequence of the present and appeared in Made In Chelsea alongside McDermott, suggested her throughout her reveal interview to “leave all embarrassment or insecurities at the door”.
“Just really go ‘this is what I’m here to do’ and really believe in yourself. It sounds a bit cheesy but really believing in what you can do, that’s the best thing – going for it,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, TV presenter Scanlon was unveiled on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show the place she admitted the prospect of taking to the dancefloor had been “in the ether for a number of years”.
She defined: “Truthfully, we wanted to have another baby, we were trying to have a baby, I was then pregnant, then I had a very small child and now, it just felt right this year.
“I believe in feelings and timing and all of those sorts of things. I’m not particularly fit. I have no idea how my pelvic floor is going to react to that level of jumping.
“I’ve never done any of these dances in my life bar a drunken jive at a family wedding, so it certainly feels like there’s room to learn and really push myself.”
Scanlon stated she had spoken to Ted Lasso actress Ellie Taylor, who took half within the present final 12 months, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, who appeared within the 2020 sequence.
She stated: “Ellie has a little girl who’s the same age as my eldest child and so I thought it’d be good to know realistically when you’re in the trenches with children, what’s the reality of this because I think I’ve had a kind of dreamy idea.
“I travel a bit, I do a chat show in Ireland, I travel over and back to that so the idea of being in the same place for an extended period of time feels a bit luxurious.
“But I don’t know if I’m totally deluded about the level of work, but she has kind of said, it’s intense, hardest thing she has ever done, but was so thrilled that she did it.
“And then Clara did it in 2020 and a similar thing, she said it’s insane, she said ‘lean heavily in’ which I intend to, I find it hard to lean out.”
The TV presenter is the one lady within the UK and Ireland to have their very own Saturday evening chat present with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.
Scanlon, who married businessman Roy Horgan in 2014, with whom she shares two daughters, can be a printed creator and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.
In 2022, she revealed her half memoir, half self-help guide Joyrider, which charts her personal journey into the world of self-development – dipping into the anxiousness and imposter syndrome she grappled with all through her teenagers and 20s, and the bulimia she lived with for 15 years.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to screens this autumn and shall be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
Last 12 months, the competitors was gained by British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin {and professional} dancer Jowita Przystal.