Lottie Ryan has shared how much she loved filling in for Jennifer Zamparelli on last week’s Dancing with the Stars.
Unfortunately, Jennifer tested positive for Covid-19 so had to pull out of the episode, leaving Lottie to take the reins with Nicky Byrne on Sunday night.
Chatting on the Six O’Clock show this week the RTE 2FM DJ revealed that it was “an absolute dream come true” to fill in for Jennifer; “I felt like I knew what I was doing and I’ve worked with Nicky before on 2FM so we have a great rapport together.”
Continuing she said; “And like I’ve said a million times, I am a genuine superfan of the show so to be able to step in and do something like that.. Also for Jen who is a genuinely very close friend of mine, it was such a privilege and I just had an absolute ball.”
However, this isn’t Lottie’s first return to the show as on the second week of the new series we saw the DJ make her return to the dance floor with her old partner, Pasquale La Rocca.
The pair performed one of their most loved routines from 2020, a salsa to the theme tune of Dora The Explorer, but while it went perfectly on the night, the new mum admits the training was very difficult.
Speaking about how much pressure she had put on herself to return Lottie said; “When I got the phone call to come back, they didn’t have to ask me twice but before I walked out on stage there was a part of me that was like, ‘You’re either very brave or very stupid’,” she said on Ireland AM.
“Obviously, there’s muscle memory and things begin to come back to you but stamina wise it was really difficult. It was a big undertaking.”
Speaking about dancing on the show once again, she said that she knew she had to grab the opportunity with both hands, as the 2020 series, which she went on to win, ended so suddenly due to Covid.
“I knew that it was going to be one of those moments that I just would cherish because my time on the show finished really abruptly because the pandemic began the week that I won.”
