Strictly's Oti Mabuse opens up on expanding her family

Oti Mabuse has opened up about potentially expanding her family after welcoming a daughter with her husband Marius Iepure last Christmas.

The Dancing on Ice judge, who competed as a Strictly Come Dancing pro for six years until 2021, was asked by The Times how many children she'd like to have.

"As many as I can afford," she replied. "What I have been through shocked me, but it made me even stronger. You can imagine if I'm ambitious in my work, how ambitious I am as a mum."

Related: Strictly's Oti Mabuse left "traumatised" after baby "poonami" incident

This comes after the South African dancer gave birth to the couple's daughter prematurely, leading to a six-week incubation period for the newborn. While that was all going on, Mabuse also discovered that she had sepsis.

Recounting the awful experience, she told the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast last month: "I think we didn't hold her for about a week because she was still in an incubator with the wires, and with jaundice so she was under blue light. And she had infections because it turned out that I had sepsis.

Related: ITV responds to Laura Whitmore and Oti Mabuse show axe claims

"What happened was the bacteria around the womb which protects your body, when it breaks, it attacks the baby. So she had infections that they didn't have time to diagnose, so they had to give her antibiotics and see if she was okay. The NHS, the doctors, the midwives – they were amazing.

"I was taken down in a wheelchair, and I couldn't get up [to hold my baby]. That was traumatising and emotionally very, very exhausting," she added.

Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year on BBC One, while spin-off Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Tickets for Strictly's 2024 live arena tour are available now.

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