Patsy Palmer is first celebrity announced for 'Dancing On Ice' 2023

Patsy Palmer has been unveiled as the first celebrity taking part in Dancing On Ice 2023.

The former EastEnders star who now works as a DJ and wellness guru and lives in the US appeared via video link on Monday's This Morning to reveal that she will be skating in the new series.

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Palmer, 50, told hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, who also present Dancing On Ice, that she wanted to challenge herself after her milestone birthday.

Asked why she was taking part, Palmer laughingly replied: "Well I didn’t obviously call them up and say can I take part!"

She added: "I wanted to challenge myself, get back to work, get out of my comfort zone."

Schofield revealed that Palmer had actually been asked to take part in the show a number of times before but had always said no, and asked why she had changed her mind.

Watch: Patsy Palmer abruptly ends Good Morning Britain interview

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The star said: "Yes because I’ve been absolutely terrified before, but my pact that I made to myself when I was 50 was that I’ve got to challenge myself for the next couple of years and get out of my comfort zone because I don’t want to get stuck in this thing of ‘argh, I’m 50, it’s such a weird age’."

Palmer said that she would be training in LA up until the show's start early next year, but when Schofield commented that it would be a nice gig for whichever skater was sent out to train with her she seemed to suggest that she thought her partner would already be in the US.

She said: "I'm sure (they'd be thrilled) if they have to travel over here, but I think that they have a lot of pros over here...I'm not too sure..."

But Schofield told her: "Oh, not our specialist ones, or famous ones."

Willoughby asked her about how excited she was to work with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who she was apparently a big fan of as a child.

Talking about their Olympic gold-winning routine Bolero, Palmer replied: "I don’t even know what year it was when they did their big dance - was it like a tango or something like that they did?"

Palmer had an awkward time on another of ITV's shows in 2021 when she stormed out of a Good Morning Britain interview with Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid.

Appearing on video link from LA, things started badly when Palmer did not react well to a joke from Shephard about whether she had left the UK to escape EastEnders fans shouting "Ricky!" at her in the street.

During a question from Reid about whether like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle she enjoyed more privacy in the US, Palmer peered at the screen and muttered something to herself.

It turned out that she was offended by a headline on the screen that read "Patsy Palmer: Addict to Wellness Guru", saying that she felt it was unfair to bring up something from her past - although Shephard claimed it was a quote from her own book.

She said: "Actually I don't even want to do this interview because I don't even want to look at what it says at the bottom of that screen.

"I'm just going to switch off, do a real Piers Morgan, and say it's not ok to have 'addict to wellness guru' on the bottom of a screen."