Katie Piper has opened up about her experience on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, saying it was 'hard' as she had given birth just months before she started training
Loose Women's Katie Piper has shared her "hard" experience on Strictly Come Dancing, having begun training for the show just months after giving birth.
The activist and presenter, 41, appeared on the BBC One competition in 2018 and was partnered with Gorka Marquez. She was the third to be eliminated, while Stacey Dooley won with Kevin Clifton that year, and has now reminisced on her "short" stint on the show.
In an exclusive interview, Katie revealed: "I gave birth in December 2017, and then you go into training in the spring, so I had a three-month-old breastfeeding baby.
"I do remember it was very hard with childcare and breastfeeding, but I'm very active, I love sport."
While acknowledging the physical demands of the show, Katie expressed her enjoyment, saying: "I think actually the physical side was probably enjoyable for me, apart from having leaking boobs and no sleep from a three-month-old child,"
Katie had welcomed her first daughter with her partner in March 2014, with the couple getting engaged later that year and married the following, before welcoming their second child in 2017.
Over the years, Katie has been juggling TV work with her Sunday morning programme on ITV, fronting several documentaries and Loose Women while also being a mum.
Regarding finding a balance, she said: "I think it's about remembering what's important to you and what is going to be here when everything else is gone.
"I love my job and I love the people I get to work with, and my job enables me to look after my family, which is really important to me."
Nearly ten years on from her stint on Strictly, Katie faces new challenges in her family life, particularly as the summer holidays are approaching and she looks for ways for her family to reconnect.
With two young daughters, the television personality is eager for her family to disconnect from social media and reconnect with each other. Joining forces with easyJet, she has become involved in a campaign aiming to accomplish just that.
easyJet is spearheading its "Airplane Mode" campaign designed to encourage families like Katie's to engage with one another without the distractions of personal devices, social media, and hectic schedules.
As a part of this scheme, the airline will provide a family card game aimed at prompting discussions and sharing memorable experiences. The game, which encourages lively conversations via questions and prompts, will be available for free to holiday-goers flying with easyJet, offered at airports around the UK starting today.
"It's a brilliant initiative and it's so overdue," Katie expressed. "We all understand the social media dangers for children, and I don't actually think it's all about putting the blame on kids. I think I speak for myself as a mum, we're guilty of always being on our phones and our children wanting to connect with us, and they can't."
Like numerous parents nationwide, Katie's concerns were heightened by the Netflix series Adolescence. Alongside the campaign, it left her fretting about the vast amount of unknowns and questioning whether merely conversing with children is sufficient.
"You can't just be checking notifications and emails whilst you're trying to get them to confide in you, and you can't just accept them saying 'Oh no, I'm fine' when they get in from school and put their bag down.
"It was one of the most important pieces of television I'd seen in a while, and I got speaking to easyJet quite soon after that about this initiative."
She added: "This is something I feel so passionate about, even if I wasn't doing this campaign."
