Dancer

I love getting in the kitchen because I don't get the chance when I'm staying in hotels and on the road.

Lots of celebrities have had some sort of dance training, especially actors or singers - they have to have some movement skill and be trained physically.

I direct as many shows as I can fit in between 'Strictly Come Dancing' and other performance stuff.

Strictly' is Saturday night fun. The pay's not amazing.

How many dancers in their life get a job that will last 15 years? Not many.

I like committed, one-on-one relationships. That's just who I am.

X Factor' creates a Christmas single that puts money in other people's pockets. Whereas 'Strictly''s not out to do that, at all. That's why I stand up for it - it isn't car-crash television.

My tights split while I was tap dancing in the West End in 1993.

All my ex-boyfriends, bar one, are my best friends.

People tend to think when you're at the top, you need bashing down. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

I love my sporty but classic brown leather Picard satchel.

Buying my new house in the country wasn't about showing off or being something I'm not, like Madonna when she turned into the country lass with her tweeds on.

I did not expect to become a celebrity or be known by the public at all.

The BBC don't pay what they pay in America or on ITV.

I think women should be paid the same as men. That's for sure. But what would you say to a woman coming in after you've been in the job for 15 years when they've done absolutely nothing to earn it? I don't think that's right.

I hated sport, but at 13, I went to an aerobics class and the teacher thought I had natural rhythm. She suggested formal dance classes, and that's when I finally found something I was really good at.

When you take on an acting or dancing role, you have to trust your director, and in some ways there is freedom in relinquishing control.

My ears are too big.

Discovering that my great-great-grandfather Harry was Australasian clog-dancing champion in 1871 was extraordinary.

Actors are very emotional, whereas sports people are used to criticism.