Victoria Derbyshire: I may be getting naked but I’m no Kim Kardashian
TV PRESENTER and cancer survivor Victoria Derbyshire has admitted she’s racked with nerves about stripping off for her new TV show — but says that her public nudity will be worlds away from that of reality stars such as Kim Kardashian.
The cancer survivor and mum-of-two is one of eight female stars who will be getting naked as part of ITV’s The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night, which aims to raise awareness of breast cancer and follows last year’s all-male version highlighting prostate cancer — and she admits she is ‘completely apprehensive’ about it.
But the brave broadcaster added that what she’s doing ‘couldn’t be further away from an Instagram post by Kim Kardashian’ because it’s ‘not just nudity for the sake of it’.
The show will see Derbyshire and her co-stars — including Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan and former Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton — create a performance while battling their nerves and learning to love their bodies for the charitable cause.
Derbyshire, who went through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a mastectomy following her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015, said she was comfortable with her body but admitted she found the idea of stripping off for the show daunting.
Speaking to the Radio Times, she said: ‘I’m not ashamed of how I look, but I do look different to other women, and the idea of revealing that is absolutely nerve-racking.’
Derbyshire, 49, said she does not have ‘body issues’ in her house, and that she walks around naked in front of her partner Mark Sandell and their two sons Oliver and Joe, because it is ‘no big deal’.
‘I am happy for them to see what a mum of two who’s had breast cancer looks like,’ she said.
‘They don’t bat an eyelid. Of course they don’t. I’m their mum. But what we are planning to do (on television) is on a different scale altogether.’
Comparing her appearance on the show with the reality TV star Kim Kardashian, Derbyshire pointed out: ‘It’s nudity for a purpose — to say this is what can happen when you get a diagnosis of breast cancer.
‘And this is why it can be OK. And this is what we can do to talk to you about trying to make sure you don’t get breast cancer.
‘And if you are diagnosed with breast cancer, depending on the diagnosis, you might be able to get through it, like me.’
Derbyshire, Nolan and Heaton will be joined by Hi-de-Hi star Ruth Madoc, reality TV star Megan McKenna, Emmerdale actress Sally Dexter, actress Helen Lederer and presenter Sarah-Jane Crawford for The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night.
Derbyshire said that the eight of them have bonded because ‘all of our lives have been touched by cancer’.
The Real Full Monty aired last year and saw the likes of Pointless presenter Alexander Armstrong and dancer Wayne Sleep strip off to raise awareness of prostate cancer.
The Real Full Monty: Ladies’ Night airs at 9pm on ITV on Thursday, March 29; Radio Times is on sale now.
Author: Anna Thomson
