Rachel Riley has opened up about the lasting impact Strictly Come Dancing has had on her. Despite meeting her future husband Pasha Kovalev on the show back in 2013, the theme tune still triggers bad feelings.
During a candid chat on the Spinning Plates podcast with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who appeared in the same series, Rachel admitted that she struggled to watch professional dancer Pasha in the years that followed.
© Getty"It still gets me and it is ridiculous," she shared. "It does do something to your psyche that isn't comfortable. Even now like my body kind of like something's just like flowing through me that isn't comfortable.
"I hate the theme tune and I have to put a brave face on with the girls and I'm like, 'Yay, daddy's on.' I mean I did get mild PTSD after it. I think the eventual way I learned to deal with it is to ignore it as much as possible."
Rachel previously revealed she avoids watching the BBC show after undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to recover from her stint back ten years ago.
She added: "I tried immersive, I tried ignoring it, I tried everything. The best way was to let it wash over me because obviously I was with Pasha. Every year, I'd find that I'd go through each week and I'd know exactly what week it was.
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"I'd have the memories of my experience on it, plus the memories of each year, and I'd like bring on everything that he was going through each week as well. So, it was compounding. I just don't like [the show].
© Instagram"I mean I had a great time while I was on it, but when I was off it, I think only someone that's been on that mad rollercoaster can quite get it."
Rachel also revealed how Pasha got her some help while she was still on the show. "Pasha got me a CBT session while I was on it because when I was in the dance off I just got stage fright and I came back the next week and I was just not there," she continued.
"And he said, 'What's happened to you?' So he sent me for rapid CBT. And it was one of the most brilliant things I've done in my life because it taught me I was a perfectionist, which I didn't realise.
"I thought being a perfectionist meant you wanted everything to be perfect, but it doesn't. It means whenever you do something you pick at the small things that go wrong rather than the CBT taught me to actually set a target before I do anything and then if you achieve that, look at that and be proud rather than look at the things that always go wrong and pick yourself apart."
The couple started dating in 2014 after they were partnered together in the 2013 series of Strictly. They then married in June 2019 in Las Vegas, months before welcoming their first child, little Maven, on 15 December of that year. They have since welcomed another daughter called Noa.
