‘It’s a pressure cooker’ Ashley Roberts details ‘horrendous’ Strictly Come Dancing moment | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts, 40, and Jamie Laing discussed their Strictly Come Dancing experiences in a new episode of the latter’s Private Parts podcast. Jamie, who competed on Strictly in 2020, praised Ashley for her impressive performances that helped her finish in second place in the sixteenth series of the BBC dance show.

Despite delivering incredible dances each week, Ashley revealed that behind the scenes she felt pressure to do well given her career as a member of The Pussycat Dolls.

She admitted: “Due to having a dance background, I knew people were going to expect that I was going to come out of the gate looking like I knew what I was doing.

“I didn’t know the Latin and ballroom stuff.

“At the beginning, they were like, ‘What’s your favourite style?’  

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“And I said the Rumba because somebody told me it was sexy. So, I was like, yeah, coming from The Pussycat Dolls, the Rumba is definitely my favourite.

“I had no f***ing clue what I was talking about.”

Jamie then chimed in saying that the Rumba is “so hard”, and Ashley echoed that “it is horrendous”.

She continued: “It’s the hardest one you can do… the professionals make it look like it’s oozing sex and I’m up here trying to stand on one leg for eight counts!”

She recalled one particularly terrifying moment when she and Pasha were walking down the stairs to perform their Tango in week four.

The popstar explained: “I grabbed Pasha’s hand and I was like, ‘I don’t remember the routine’, and he said, ‘yes you do, sit on the chair’.”

Luckily, Ashley did remember the routine but described the whole Strictly experience as a “pressure cooker”.

Ashley performed with The Pussycat Dolls from 2003 to 2010 alongside Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt, Jessica Sutta, Carmit Bachar and Melody Thornton.

Following the band’s split, Ashley competed in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! back in 2012.

She finished in second place behind EastEnders actress Charlie Brooks.

The same year, she joined the Dancing On Ice judging panel and later became a regular on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Ashley is now showbiz correspondent on Heart Breakfast alongside Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston.