Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse will brighten our screens again in the new season starting next week – but she recalls a far bleaker time growing up under apartheid in South Africa.
Motsi, 41, has told how she was subjected to racist slurs at the convent school where she was educated while growing up near Pretoria with family including ex-Strictly dancer sister Oti.
The mum-of-one said: “I lived under apartheid until the age of nine, a very scary time. We lived in a Black-only suburb and I didn’t speak English when I first went to school.
"We went to a Catholic school and Black children were a minority. One of the nuns would call us ‘Black witches’ and hit us. I was terrified.”
Motsi began dancing at the age of six and her talent allowed her to build a new life in Europe, entering ballroom championships and eventually finding success on German TV.
But the dancing world put a lot of pressure on her to be thin. She said: “There’s so much focus on what you weigh. A teacher once told me to lose weight when I was 50 kilos [7st 12lb]!
"My body’s changed since, my weight goes up and down. But a healthy mind, body and soul is more important than being thin.”
Motsi wed dancing partner Timo Kulczak in 2003 but they divorced in 2014. Three years later she wed new dance partner Evgenij Voznyuk in 2017, and had their daughter the following year.
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She joined Strictly in 2019 and has since led a double life every autumn – commuting to the UK for her glamorous weekend job, then home to Germany for the week.
She said: “I live in the forest; I take my child to playgroup in my pyjamas; I work out, sleep, and no one gives a damn about me!”
The new season, launching on September 17, will be her first without Oti, 32, who has moved on to shows including ITV ’s The Masked Dancer.
Motsi told Prima magazine : “I’ll be sad but I have to respect her decision. Meanwhile I’ll continue to fly the Mabuse flag on Strictly for as long as they want me.”
- Full interview Prima’s October issue out today.
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