Anneka Rice was left 'broken' and 'depressed' amid 'Strictly' injury

Watch: Anneka Rice reveals Strictly Come Dancing left her ‘broken and depressed'

Anneka Rice has revealed that Strictly Come Dancing left her feeling “broken” and “depressed”.

The TV star, 62, was a contestant on the 2019 series of the BBC ballroom competition.

She has now told how the show took its toll physically, saying she ended up needing months of treatment for whiplash.

Read more: Anneka Rice: I just want to wear trousers on the dancefloor

Rice said on the My Mate Bought A Toaster podcast: “The bit I didn’t expect was how broken I’d be, for someone who’s very fit. Oh my goodness!”

The mother-of-three went on: “I was so broken I’d limp back home and have to get into an ice cold bath… I think on the whole the experience is, in theory, so joyful you forget things like that. It’s like childbirth, you just forget.

“But I was in physio for three months afterwards because I had such bad whiplash in my neck.

"The last dance I did when I was voted out I had this terrible whiplash injury all through the week, rehearsing these lifts I had to do and things.”

The Challenge Anneka star said the adrenaline helped her to dance on.

Rice said the Strictly team were great with her injury and that the programme’s physio used to run a whiplash clinic so was “all over it”.

Read more: Anneka Rice befriends Strictly champion Stacey Dooley to get dancing tips

“But it brings you down very low because I’d never really been badly injured in my life, considering all the lunatic stunts and things I’ve done," she continued.

“It brings you very low because I obviously wondered whether I’d ever recover.”

“I got quite depressed afterwards,” she added.

Rice was paired with pro Kevin Clifton on the 17th series of Strictly. They were the second pair to be voted out.

Watch: Strictly reportedly bans reality stars once again for 2021 series