Age: 64
Professional partner: Mark Hanretty

Dancing On Ice has made me feel like I’m 25 again! My husband has said he’s never seen me so happy in the 28 years that we’ve been together!

Diet and fitness guru Rosemary Conley admits she’s having the time of her life rehearsing for the new series of Dancing On Ice, so much so her husband has commented that he’s never seen her so happy.

Partnered with professional skater, Mark Hanretty, Rosemary brings them both pack lunches to ensure they are eating the right foods before training.

Rosemary says, “The only healthy thing that I’m doing is eating more which I can with all the exercising I am doing. I take Mark’s lunch everyday because I want to make sure that he is going to be well looked after. So while I’m packing my own lunch, I’m packing his as well.”

She continues, “To be honest I’m not suffering with any aches and pains. I always do my stretches afterwards and we always warm up carefully and Mark is very thorough with his tuition and his discipline, how to look after us and so on. I just want to get to January in one piece. I’ve been on the ceiling with excitement since I started training; my husband has said he’s never seen me so happy in the 28 years that we’ve been together!”
Rosemary reveals that she was at first intimated when she met skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

She says, “It’s almost like you can’t describe your first meeting with Torvill and Dean and it’s because you’ve just got so much respect for them they are such unique and amazing skaters in their own right but they’re just so genuinely lovely. Before the programme I was a bit intimidated by Christopher Dean, and in actual fact he’s absolutely lovely. The reason I’ve been intimidated by him is because I’ve picked up over the various series that he’s asked people to do things that are really quite tough and after all that he’s just a hard task master but he’s been totally lovely and Jayne Torvill is a joy.”

Having earned huge respect for her diet and fitness advice, Rosemary admits that skating is teaching her to get into poses she never thought possible!

She says, “I’m certainly getting my body into positions I didn’t know I ever could and I’m certainly bending backwards more than I thought I ever would or could!”

Rosemary continues, “I’m dreading throwing up after I’ve done a spin on the ice! Last week we practiced the spin but when Mark put me back down on the ice, I couldn’t get up! When I got home, I couldn’t eat my dinner – it took me four hours recover!