Former Holby star Chizzy Akudolu hit "massive low" with depression after being voted off Strictly

Former Holby star Chizzy Akudolu has opened up about her battle with depression, revealing she suffered a "massive low" after she was voted off in the first week of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing last year.

Speaking on Loose Women (March 20^th), Akudolu said: “I do suffer from depression. I’m not ashamed to say that at all. It’s not something I asked for. It’s something I’m dealing with, I’m still on anti-depressants. I have therapy. I had quite a bit of therapy after Strictly. I just want to say that the show did offer me a therapist, I said, ‘No I’ll be fine, it’s just a show, just a show’. I did hit a massive low with my depression after Strictly.”

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When asked if her Strictly exit contributed to the illness, Akudolu said: “There was a bit of embarrassment and there’s all these plans you have in your head of future dances. And I’ve wanted to do the show for so long, and to get to do it, and I was getting fitter, and then for it suddenly just to be taken away, it was crushing. It was my birthday the following Saturday. Who gets to dance on Strictly on their birthday? Well, not me!”

Akudolu appeared in the contest alongside dance partner Pasha Kovalev and exited in the series’ first elimination after a dance-off with TV presenter Brian Conley. Many viewers disagreed with the judges’ decision, however, with a RadioTimes.com poll revealing over 80% of readers thought they had got it wrong.