Oti Mabuse, the star of Strictly Come Dancing, has revealed that Motsi, her sister, didn’t talk to her for a year while she was pursuing a dance career with Marius Iepure, his ex-husband.
After making the decision to leave South Africa for Germany, Motsi Mabuse, the judge for Strictly Come Dancing, “didn’t speak to sister Oti for a year.” According to Oti, her older sibling “didn’t want” her to move to Atlanta to pursue dancing as a future spouse.
Motsi, 44, made the move from South Africa to Germany back in 2007 when she became part of Let’s Dance as a professional dancer. She returned for the programme’s third series and ultimately secured a spot on the judging panel in 2011.
When Oti later revealed her desire to pursue a similar path in dance, Motsi made arrangements to have her meet several potential dance partners.
Oti, who became a Strictly professional in 2015, has admitted she instantly recognized Marius as “the one” despite being open to testing the waters with various dancers. Oti has admitted that her sister was not all that enthusiastic about her dancing ambitions, despite Motsi’s facilitation of the introduction to her future husband.
During an appearance on Women’s Health’s Just As Well podcast, she revealed: “Motsi didn’t want it. She was like, ‘I know this guy, I’ll give you his number, I’ll give you a few guys that you can try out with but I don’t want you here. I don’t want you in Germany’.”, reports Wales Online.
She had ten years of struggle for a dancer’s life when she arrived in Germany. She felt about me in the same way that she did my daughter, which frightens me.
She said, “I don’t want this life for you,” and she was right. You’re not welcome here, please. I don’t want you to endure the hell that I have.” My entire family was upset that I chose to dance because she hadn’t spoken to me for about a year.
She also said, “This boy Marius, he just wants to be your boyfriend, that’s all he wants, I want you to be serious,” and I was like, “Well, it’s a little late now,” so we were dancing and talking.
Oti’s family made amends after 12 months, she revealed. She continued, “After a year, they were like, Okay, we’re really sorry and we miss you and we should have supported you, but it’s so good that you did it yourself and were able to succeed.”
Oti clinched the Strictly crown in consecutive years, 2019 and 2020, before departing to take up a judging role on Dancing on Ice. This year she’s lined up to sit on the judging panel for the Irish edition of Dancing with the Stars.
Meanwhile, Motsi has held a judging position on the programme since 2019, stepping in for Darcey Bussell. She’ll be back on our screens from 7pm on BBC One as Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin, Karen Carney and Carlos Gu, alongside George Clarke and Alexis Warr battle it out for the coveted Glitterball Trophy.
Source: Mirror
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