He had faith in me. It’s nice to have that behind you
really and surround yourself with the right people. I’ve had my best friend since I was 11 and I’ll always want them, I’ve got such a good family. “I just think, don’t get lost in that world, just keep people by you. That’s what really keeps me going, because I love my best friends. “They’ve got their normal jobs and I love going round there and having my wine nights. I don’t ever want to change my normal life. “I love Friday wine night. We have such a laugh. And it’s nice to have mates that really make me belly laugh and I never wanna lose that.” It seems Love Island, while giving her the springboard into showbiz, is in the past and she won’t jog her memory by watching herself on it again. Dani said: “Obviously, when you come out, people are like, ‘Watch this bit, watch that bit’, but it just got a bit weird. I remember sitting there and I was like, ‘Ooh, I’m watching myself, this is really, really odd’.
“And I lived it. I lived the summer, so I didn’t feel like I had to watch it all over again, because I’d done it.”
She’s also moved from contestant to host on True Love or True Lies.
The series was filmed in a mansion in Malta, where eight couples are competing to prove their love is real for the cash prize.
But some of the couples are fake, meaning true love may not walk away as the winner.
It’s a family affair too with dad Danny doing the voiceover for the second series while Dani takes over from Maya Jama as host.
Of course, Danny, who plays Albert Square’s Mick Carter, was quick to give his daughter advice.
“He just said, ‘Keep it very you, bring your personality out and just enjoy it. You know you want to do it’,” she revealed. “He had a lot of faith in me and it’s nice to have that behind you, going, ‘You can do it’. He was rooting for me and I’d ring him afterwards and you could just hear it in my voice how excited I was about it. He was like, ‘You’ve got it, you’ll be fine’.”
They clearly share a close bond and it’s something Dani says has always been the case.
She added: “We’ve always had such a good relationship, he’s always been my friend as well.”
With 3.5million Instagram followers, you have to wonder how much attention she’ll be paying to what viewers think.
Dani said: “Social media is the devil, really. I feel like, sometimes you don’t need to always rely on social media for approval.
“Social media is a great place and when there’s good comments, you’re like, ‘Yeah’. But when there’s bad ones – you’ve just got to take them on the chin. Not everyone likes reality shows – you have to let it go. But I hope people love it”. True Love Or True Lies? launches on Monday, MTV, 9pm then airs every weeknight in that slot for two weeks.
DANI DYER ON THE SUPPORT OF HER DAD, DANNY