Vick Hope gets ‘three hours of sleep a night’ juggling Strictly and radio show

Strictly Come Dancing contestant Vick Hope has said she is getting by on just three hours of sleep a night while training for the programme.

The Capital Breakfast host, 29, is juggling the dancing competition with her day job, as well as doing charity work, and said being on the go all the time has also impacted her diet.

However, the radio DJ said that while she needs to “look after myself a bit better”, she is thrilled to have the opportunity to do both her job and Strictly.

Hope, who is partnered with new Strictly professional Graziano Di Prima, said: “I’ve been surviving on about three hours a night this week and working 18-hour days, but we’re good.

“I have to get up about half four every morning for the Breakfast show.

“It is tough but at the end of the day I always think, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, and I am so lucky to be able to be in a position where I get to do (the radio) show, it’s brilliant.

“And to do Strictly is as well. I can’t complain about it, I’m very lucky.”

She added: “But it doesn’t mean I’m not tired.”

Hope said she hopes her tiredness “doesn’t hinder” her performances, and that her diet has taken a hit.

“I’m eating on the go quite a lot, I should probably eat less.

“I should probably look after myself a bit better because this is very physically draining.

“I know for a lot of the others, this is their job for the time being, this is all they are doing, so they’re able to put everything into it.

“I’m trying to eat better. My mum came down from Newcastle with lots of Nigerian food to put in the freezer. I’m still dining on that.”

Hope, who performed a salsa to Take A Chance On Me by Abba on Saturday night with Di Prima, also brushed off rumours about a budding romance between them.

The broadcaster is currently single and Italian dancer Di Prima has a girlfriend, but they understand the reasons for the speculation.

Hope said: “It’s the nature of the show that people speculate about stuff like that, and because of the way you dance, you are very close, you are sweating, you are touching each other.

“It’s understandable to an extent, it’s normal.

Di Prima said: “You spend like seven, eight hours a day together. So of course you start to know each other better and better every day.”

Hope said she had been concerned about performing the salsa, because “it’s a sexy dance and I’m struggling with that a little bit”.

One more celebrity will leave the competition in Sunday’s results show, after Susannah Constantine became the first to leave last week.

Strictly Come Dancing airs at 7.45pm.