Ruthie: Dancing saved me after childhood abuse
RUTHIE Henshall says performing on stage helped to save her after she was abused as a child.
The West End star, 53, has been teaching dance routines to campmates in the I’m A Celebrity castle.
And she revealed: “When I found dancing, it was like somebody had turned the light on in my life. I couldn’t get enough of it.”
Ruthie grew up in Bromley, Kent, the youngest of four sisters.
She has previously spoken about coming from a broken home, where her parents argued constantly.
And she has been candid about being sexually abused by a family friend when she was just four years old, and the effect it had on her later in life.
Ruthie admitted: “I was always going out and behaving badly.
“And relationships I found very, very difficult, very, very difficult to stay in a relationship, I was always running.”
But Ruthie credits dancing and performing with bringing her back from the brink.
She said: “There was a girl who used to practice ballet in the playground and I was a real tomboy and I remember saying, ‘Why do you practice ballet? It’s a bit sissy, isn’t it?’
“She said, ‘Well if you think it’s sissy, go and try it yourself’.
“It was extraordinary to find something to channel all these feelings that were going on inside me. I really believe it saved little Ruthie.”
The star began to take ballet classes and eventually trained at the Laine Theatre Arts School in Epsom, Surrey.
Afterwards, she joined a UK tour of musical A Chorus Line, playing Maggie, and never looked back.
During her career, Ruthie has performed in some of the most popular musicals of the past three decades, including Cats, Miss Saigon, Crazy For You, She Loves Me, Marguerite, Oliver!, Les Miserables, Billy Elliot and Chicago.