Dance Mums UK

Season 1 Lifetime (*131) 15:00 Reality

There’s more to Jennifer Ellison than her past as a lingerie glamour model. The 33-year-old was also a soap star, playing Emily Shadwick on British soapie Brookside (1982-2003) from 1998 until the show ended, and she’s been dancing since she was three. That paid off because Jen’s been on three dance-related reality shows so far, most recently as the host of Dance Mums UK (2014-current).

Jennifer’s got other talents besides 1

acting and dancing. She released her pop songs Baby, I Don’t Care and Bye Bye Boy in 2003 and 2004, and she also won the first season of Hell’s Kitchen (2004-2009) with Marco Pierre White as the head chef/judge.

But her first and most important 2

job is being a mother to her sons Bobby (6), Harry (3) and Charlie (2) with ex-pro boxer hubby Robbie Tickle. She had a 92-hour labour with Bobby before having an emergency C-section.

She got addicted to fizzy drinks 3

and in January this year, Jennifer went on reality show Sugar Free Farm (2016-current) to kick her eight-cansa-day habit. “I was hit with the worst headaches. I went cold turkey and I felt physically sick,” she recalls.

Sugar wasn’t her only addiction. 4

Jennifer recently revealed she was addicted to sunbeds from when she was 14. “I did 15 minutes with oil everyday,” she says, adding that she stopped when her uncle developed skin cancer in 2015.

Being in the public eye has seen 5

her fall victim to online abuse, but Jen takes it with a pinch of salt. “I don’t care about [internet] trolls. What I look like is not a priority,” she explains. “My husband still looks at me the way he did when I’d just done my [2012] fitness DVD. I’m happy and feel loved.”