Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse speaks out on social media abuse

By Lidia Molina-Whyte

Published: Monday, 31 January 2022 at 12:00 am

Oti Mabuse has spoken out for the first time about being on the receiving end of social media abuse.

The Strictly Come Dancing pro and Dancing on Ice judge opened up in this week’s Radio Times magazine on the hate she has received from a small minority online.

“I’ve faced some backlash while performing on [Strictly],” wrote Mabuse, who will be hosting her own BBC Radio 4 show launching this week, wrote. “I’ve never really spoken about it because I’ve tried for so long to think about it this way: I work on a show that 10 million people love; if 10 or 100 people aren’t nice to me, that is not representative of everyone else’s view.”

She added: “It’s taken years for me to get that into my head. To get tweeted or receive a message in my inbox being racially abusive, or fat-shaming me, is horrible. But it’s written by a person who can’t even face themselves in the mirror.”

In the piece, Oti also praises her sister Motsi, who she calls her own “dancing legend”.

“The hard stuff that I’ve been through, with the racism and discrimination, is proof that people still have a lot to learn. The more hate I receive, the more of a reason it is to carry on doing my job. I have to show young girls that anything is possible,” she wrote.

You can read Oti Mabuse’s feature in full in this week’s print issue of Radio Times.