Laila Rouass appeared on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2009 with Anton Du Beke as her dancing partner. She came fourth on the show but described her experience as ‘a nightmare’.
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Her experience
Laila Rouass was extremely popular on Strictly when she took part in 2009. Despite her popularity, she did not enjoy it as much as she thought she would have. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show over the weekend, she recalled her experience:
Oh my god that was a nightmare, it was a nightmare! I really wanted to leave, I didn't enjoy it.
During the program, she expressed how much she loves watching the show, but her experience as a contestant wasn’t at all enjoyable. Laila said she only wanted to make it to Blackpool. Evidently, her wish came true we do ‘Blackpool, Rod Stewart's there, I'm thinking I'm living the dream’. However, she was then voted through to the next week.
Laila also recalled that she really wanted to quit as ‘you get paid the same anyway whether you're in the first week or the 17th week.’
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Someone else had a bad experience
The Eastenders star Natalie Cassidy has also recently spoken about her time on Strictly. She revealed that she felt ‘fat-shamed’ whilst on the show at the same time as Laila. Natalie was paired with Vincent Simone and came in fifth.
In an interview with The Sun, she said she felt ridiculed as she was asked to perform dance moves usually performed by male dancers.
The mum-of-two recalled:
‘I was about 4 stone bigger than I am now. Vincenzo was quite little,’
‘And I remember one week, it was like 'oh, we’re going to do this dance, but you’re going to pick up Vincent.'
