FERNE McCann has has become the first star to sign up for the next series of Dancing on Ice.
The line-up for the next season, which is expected to air in January with Holly Willoughby returning to host, isn't expected to be unveiled for months.
The move by Ferne sees the former Towie cat member, 34, step back into the spotlight after leaked audio heard her slating the victims of her acid attacker ex, Arthur Collins.
Ferne apologised for her comments in 2022, which she said were “manipulated, edited and taken entirely out of context."
ITV backed her at the time and continued to screen her First Time Mum series.
A source said: “It’s been a rough few years for Ferne but she has always been an ITV star, with her roots on Towie and then with her first steps into the mainstream on I’m A Celebrity in 2015.
"So Dancing on Ice will be a chance for her to knuckle down, work hard and win over the public.”
Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern will present the next series of Dancing on Ice in January 2025.
An ITV Spokesperson said, “The line up for Dancing on Ice 2025 will be announced in due course.”
Ferne is the first celebrity revealed on the line-up.
She was pregnant with her first child to ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins when in April 2017 he was arrested and charged with a nightclub acid attack.
Ferne gave birth to their daughter, Sunday, on November 2 of that year.
The following month he was jailed for twenty years, with another five on licence, for the attack which injured a number of clubbers including Sophie Hall.
In November 2022, voice notes of McCann making derogatory comments about the victims, including Sophie, were released.
Ferne branded her an “ugly f***ing c***."
At the time Sophie, who was left scarred for life, urged ITV to cancel Ferne’s projects.
She told The Sun: “I feel sick to my stomach.
“Why should anyone who has been so cruel be given the platform to tear others down?
“It has taken five years to rebuild my confidence after the attack. And now in just minutes all my hard work has been shattered by these malicious voice notes.
“ITV need to address what’s been said by Ferne. She needs to be held accountable and so do they.
“Why should anyone who has been so cruel and vicious with their words be given the platform to tear down others? To make them feel worthless and like they’re not good enough?
“I’m in a state of shock and disbelief.”
The voicenotes were leaked by an anonymous Instagram account and were said to have been recorded a year after the attack.
In the clip, a woman - said to be Ferne - is heard discussing Sophie entering a pageant and wearing a dress made from headlines about the attack.
The woman says: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“The silly b***h has made a dress, a papier-mâché dress out of the cuttings from the event.
“She will probably win it. I’m not going to lie. Only because the awards she entered are probably loving all this free press.
"So they will probably fix it, she will win.
She is one ugly f***ing c***.”
In other notes, Ferne called her former Towie co-star Sam Faiers a “fat c***."
