MY HAVEN – OLA JORDAN

The former Strictly pro dancer, 34, in the ‘snug’ at her house in Kent

1 POLES APART My husband James and I bought this five-bedroom house when it was built five years ago, and we call this room the snug because it’s where we relax. What’s lovely is that my sister Monika, a pharmacist, lives five minutes away. We’re originally from Legionowo in Poland, and this is our parents Dariusz, an electrician, and Janina, an office worker, holding me at my christening. I was determined not to struggle like my parents, so I moved here when I became Polish dance champion in 1999. 2 PARTNER FOR LIFE I met James when I arrived here and six months later we left our dance partners and teamed up, and within a year we became a couple personally too. This is us on our wedding day in 2003. We competed together from 2000 and got into the World Top 12, but we stopped competing in 2006 when we joined Strictly as it’s impossible to do both. We’re too old to compete now, and my leg hasn’t recovered from an accident I had on Channel 4’s The Jump, when I damaged my cruciate ligaments. 3 CATSUIT QUEEN The catsuit is the costume most associated with me. I love wearing them because they’re so comfortable – people are shocked by them sometimes but they don’t show anything they shouldn’t. I was the first pro to wear one on Strictly with Andrew Castle in 2008. But after I wore one with Robbie Savage in 2011 I was told not to wear them any more as they were too sexy. This one was designed by me, James and Strictly’s head costume designer Vicky Gill. It’s worth around £2,000. 4 MY JOURNEY This is my autobiography, which I’m very proud of, and we’ve been approached by a Hollywood production company interested in making a film based on it. I suppose they like my journey from what was a Communist country, and how I made something of my life here through dancing. It would be good to get a Polish dancer who can act to play the young me – James would like to be portrayed by Brad Pitt. Now we’ve stopped dancing we’d love to have children – that could be the sequel! 5 STRICTLY TOPS This is the little replica glitterball I was given when I won Strictly with TV presenter Chris Hollins. He’d never done Latin or ballroom dancing before, and neither of us thought we’d win in a million years – in the first week we were favourites to be voted off. But he was great to work with – I pushed him hard and he let me. In the final we were up against actor Ricky Whittle and his partner Natalie Lowe. Chris saw how much I wanted to win and he did it for me, and we’re still great friends today. 6 NICE SWING James has a golf handicap of five, and these are his clubs. Most husbands would prefer that their wives didn’t play golf, but James wants me to so I’m having lessons. Every year we take his parents on holiday to places with golf courses and they play every day, so at least I can join in now. James says my swing is more natural than his, and my goal is to beat him one day. He never won Strictly, and for a while after I won I put my trophy on our bedside table just to rub it in!

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