Angela Scanlon: Strictly Come Dancing Left Me in More Pain Than Childbirth Due to Nasty Injuries

Angela Scanlon has claimed Strictly Come Dancing left her in more pain than childbirth as she detailed the horror injuries she sustained from the long-running show.

The Irish TV presenter, 41, took part in the Saturday night BBC series back in 2023 and danced with professional Carlos Gu, 32.

However, despite waltzing all the way through the competition and finishing in sixth place, Angela’s stint left her with nasty ‘raw, bleeding blisters’.

Speaking to reality TV star Vicky Pattison, 37, on their Get A Grip podcast, Angela said: ‘I’ve had two children without pain relief and would do that ten times over in a day than have raw, bleeding blisters.

‘You have to put the goddamn shoes on and do a Viennese waltz – my heels have never had so much action.

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Angela Scanlon has claimed Strictly Come Dancing left her in more pain than childbirth as she detailed the horror injuries she sustained from the long-running show

The Irish TV presenter, 41, took part in the Saturday night BBC series back in 2023 and danced with professional Carlos Gu, 32

Angela said she would go through childbirth without pain relief ‘ten times over in a day’ than take part again over her her ‘raw, bleeding blisters’

‘You put a plaster on and, because you’re sweating like a donkey, it falls off. You put socks on with your ballroom shoe, and you’re still rub-a-dubbing.

‘You’re raw.’

Angela has two daughters with her entrepreneur husband Rory Horgan – Ruby, seven, and Marnie, three.

The pair married in 2014 and Rory, who works in corporate banking, tends to keep a low profile compared to his wife.

Angela gave birth to her first daughter Ruby in 2018, while Marnie was delivered in 2022 – just a year before she signed up to Strictly. 

She’s not the first Strictly Come Dancing celebrity to have sustained a number of nasty injuries since its launch in 2004.

Just last year DIY SOS star Nick Knowles badly injured his knee during training after a jump went wrong. The 62-year-old had to have two operations to aid his recovery.

Big Brother host AJ Odudu was also left on crutches in 2021 when she tore a ligament, with the star revealing how her ligament in the arch of her foot was left ‘hanging by a thread’.

Zara McDermott previously told how her feet were left bleeding over the show’s intensive training sessions back in 2023.

Angela and her pro partner Carlos Gu waltzed through the competition and left the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom in sixth place

She told how she was left with just three toenails following her appearances in the ballroom and shared a photo of her nasty foot wounds including one on her big toe, saying: ‘Half my toe has come off tbh.’ 

Meanwhile, earlier this month Angela bravely opened up about her ongoing battle with loneliness, revealing it became so bad she suffered a breakdown as a result.

She hit breaking point during a CoppaFeel! charity trek in the Himalayas, India last November.  

Angela was a team leader during the trip alongside fellow TV presenter Emma Willis, entrepreneur Sara Davies and Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown.

Sharing her emotional story in a Substack post, Angela said she had hoped simply to motivate the female trekkers, all of whom had had breast cancer.

However, just days into the challenging trek, she found herself overwhelmed by the emotional intensity of the experience.

‘A couple of days in – I cracked. Full breakdown. Ugly crying into my yak-themed duvet,’ she shared.

She added she thought to herself at the time, ‘I can’t do this. I’m not the right person. What the actual f*** was I thinking? How arrogant was I to believe I’m equipped to hold these brilliant women at such a tender time?’