Susannah Constantine’s return from self-loathing recluse to Strictly Come Dancing’s top star
SHE once declared doing Strictly “would be one public humiliation too far”, but Susannah Constantine has had a change of heart.
The Sun revealed yesterday that the 56-year-old TV presenter would be squeezing into sequins as the biggest name so far when the show returns next month.
Fans of the hit BBC1 dance contest are delighted as — let’s face it — many have no idea who some of the other “celebrities” are. (Seann who?)
And friends says it is the What Not To Wear star’s chance to show the world the “new Susannah” — a fitter, healthier, happier person.
As one pal puts it: “She has never felt more confident than she feels right now. She would not have done this any other year.”
Once a fixture of primetime telly dispensing wardrobe wisdom on everything from haute couture to the high street, Susannah fell out of fashion with the viewing public.
But now Strictly has prompted much scratching of heads as the nation wonders: What has she been up to in the past decade? And where is the curvy one’s stick-thin sidekick, Trinny Woodall?
After all, Trinny, 54, and Susannah, with their self-styled fried egg and melon boobs, were the (bitchier) Ant and Dec of the fashion game, joined at the perfectly exfoliated hip.
In their heyday they commanded 5.2million viewers with What Not To Wear and dictated women’s fashion in the UK for the best part of ten years.
The pair have been good friends ever since meeting in the Eighties.
At the time privately educated Susannah, who enjoyed a privileged upbringing in Hammersmith, West London, was a fashion journalist and a fixture in the gossip columns.
This was largely thanks to celebrity dates — including a dalliance with Imran Khan, then a cricketer now Pakistan’s Prime Minister — when she was 27, and with Princess Margaret’s son, David, Viscount Linley.
She admits her relationship with the royal “opened doors”. In fact, she met banker’s daughter Trinny at a party hosted by Viscount Linley.
They created their weekly style guide What Not To Wear in 1994. The newspaper column was turned into a successful BBC show which ran from 2001 to 2006.
After five series, the pair — worth £10million at one point — were lured to ITV with a £1.2million deal.
But when Trinny And Susannah Undress The Nation bombed, ITV pulled the plug. Suddenly, they spiralled into telly obscurity.
US show Making Over America With Trinny And Susannah flopped, there followed a stint flogging their clothing on QVC and a tour of shopping malls in New Zealand and Australia.
As Susannah put it: “We stopped being on TV because no one wanted to book us. We weren’t popular any more in this country.”
They had become something of a joke here. Gordon Ramsay even named his two pigs after them on The F-Word.
Gamely, the pair met the abuse head on sending themselves up on the spoof C4 reality show, Trinny And Susannah: From Boom To Bust.
Susannah said at the time: “You’ve got to turn what people are criticising you for into a positive.
I came up with the idea after reading a Sunday newspaper profile piece in which the last line was, ‘The next time these two see themselves on TV will be to witness their own hanging’. I was so upset. I was sobbing.”
The show had seemed like the perfect riposte but critics panned it.
For Susannah there followed a full-blown midlife crisis — and how she tackled this ultimately paved the way to Strictly and a solo career.
Despite spending her working life helping women find confidence, Susannah began to hate her own reflection and slid into depression.
While Trinny turned to drink and drugs to cope with her mounting debts, Susannah’s self-loathing turned her into a virtual recluse.
Not even the love and support of her husband of 23 years, businessman Sten Bertelsen, and their children — Joe, now 19, Esme, 15, and CeCe, 14 — could help.
She said: “I’d completely lost my way. I’d catch my reflection and think, ‘Who is that chubby, sad, old, fat, ugly woman?’
“I saw this ghost of myself. I had major self-esteem issues. I probably reached a bit of a rock bottom.
“I was horrified by my appearance. I’d wake up in the morning feeling like a 90-year-old woman.
“I really nosedived and, ironically, became one of the people Trinny and I would help in our shows — but I didn’t know how to help myself . . .
“I lost my confidence. It took a while to get over it.”
One outlet she found was writing. Her debut chick-lit novel, After The Snow, was published last year. The story about an 11-year-old girl who unravels secrets of the upper classes was based on her own life.
She said: “In so many ways I had a gilded, privileged upbringing and my mother was amazing, but her illness — manic depression — ran through our lives like a destructive thread.
“I remember waking up with a snowball of dread in my stomach just wondering how she’d be each day. But her sudden and unexplained disappearances (to hospital) left me with a fear of abandonment.
“That early, ingrained anxiety about her left me vulnerable to panic attacks.
“As a child I constantly felt a responsibility to watch out for her and to try to keep her safe.
“I was also absolutely terrified for years that I had the same gene.”
The book was also a watershed moment for Susannah, who said: “This is the first thing I have ever done on my own.
“I’ve always had Trinny to bully and chivvy me, because I’m fundamentally a lazy person, but now I’m responsible to nobody.”
Sadly, it was not a commercial success, nor was her brief stint on 2015’s I’m A Celebrity.
But earlier this year she dipped her toe back into mainstream telly by taking part in BBC2’s Famously UnFit for Sport Relief.
During filming, Susannah ran, rowed and swam and gave up booze and cigarettes.
After three months she had lost one and a half stone and regained her size 10/12 figure. More importantly, the exercise helped her cope with her anxiety.
She said: “The experience came just as I was at my lowest ebb.”
She added, joking: “When we go out now Sten shows me off like a prize heifer in a county show. He is so encouraging. I think it has changed our relationship. I’m much more confident now.”
Her confidence has certainly taken an upturn, as evidenced by her social media posts. On July 6 she Instagrammed a picture of herself with SLAVE on her forehead, captioned: “Holidays start tomorrow. Back to my day job #cleaner #disasterchef #taxiservice #laundry #therapist #travelagent.”
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Also last month on Instagram, she shared a bizarre beauty tip: “Which of you ladies like me have huge t**s and can’t find a bra that fits properly? Well I have the solution — two bras.
“You might think I’m mad, but now I’ve got the boobs of a teenager again because they’re firm and they don’t jiggle around, which I hate and get embarrassed by.”
Earlier this year, she uploaded a snap of herself at a foreign airport in a swimming costume, captioned: “What’s worse . . . swimsuit on airport run or PJs on school run?”
When her family gather around the telly in their 19th-century home in Sussex, they will be hoping newly-confident Susannah has what it takes to shoulder the criticism aimed at Strictly contestants.
But for Susannah the much more pressing issue right now is no doubt . . . what will she wear?
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