Michaela Strachan is swapping her hiking boots and binoculars for ice skates, as she takes part in Dancing on Ice 2025. The series will begin at 6.30pm on Sunday, January 12 on IT1V1.
Michaela is best known for appearing and hosting wildlife and nature programmes such as Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Digging For Treasure. Before finding fame on TV Michaela had a variety of different careers including appearing in musicals, working as an Avon lady and she even had a brief music career.
Known as just Michaela, she released two songs, a cover of Edwin Starr’s H.A.P.PY. Radio in 1989 and Take Good Care of My Heart in 1990. In 2014 Michaela was diagnosed with breast cancer after what seemed like a routine mammogram turned serious.
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She describes how she became overwhelmed during the phone call from her doctor, managing to comprehend only fragments of the information being relayed: “The tears started to roll as my doctor tried to tell me what would happen next, but I only took in every fifth word or so.”
Despite the small size of the lump and its early detection, a double mastectomy was recommended. Doctors told Michaela that because of her comparatively small bust a lumpectomy was not a viable option, and the lobular cancer’s risk of spreading meant that it was probably safest to remove her unaffected breast as well.
She acknowledges that the operation saved her life, but views a mastectomy as an especially harsh solution to the issue: “Surely there’s a better way of dealing with a tiny bit of cancer in a woman’s breast than chopping them off,” she comments. “It seems brutal, doesn’t it? I hope it doesn’t have to be that way in 20 years. It’s a hell of a thing to take a woman’s boobs off.”
Michaela has said she doesn’t want to wear tight tops while on Dancing on Ice. In 1996 Michaela married filmmaker Duncan Chard and they divorced five years later, in 2001. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.
She is now with her partner Nick Chevallier and they had a son together, Oliver, in 2005. They normally live in South Africa and Michaela is basing herself in the UK for her stint on Dancing on Ice.
Nick remains at home in South Africa. Michaela said: “We haven’t made a plan for Nick yet because he is in South Africa,” she explains: “He may come over later on, it depends on how far I get.”
“Certainly my mum’s coming, my brother’s coming, my son’s coming, my stepdaughter’s coming. So yeah, a lot of people are. And we’ve made a plan for them to have a party back at home to be able to watch it.”