How Motsi Mabuse rebuilt her strength at 45: This journey was never about becoming smaller

Bending her body backwards over a wooden box, Motsi Mabuse resembles a work of art. Were 15 minutes into shooting her first Womens Health cover at the Columbia hotel in west London and the list of shots were hoping to capture is taped to a whiteboard in the corner. But as the familiar chords of Madonnas Like A Prayer blare out through the speakers and Motsi begins to move, the list is quietly abandoned. If anyones calling the shots on this shoot, its the 45-year-old dancer commanding the camera lens.

As she flows from pose to pose pirouetting across the wooden floorboards, suspending her body in the frame of a window and performing a floor routine worthy of the show on which shes been a judge for the past seven years the South African-born ballroom dancer and Strictly Come Dancing star radiates the kind of confidence earned from two decades in the spotlight; she joined Germanys Lets Dance show as a professional dancer in 2007 before becoming a judge on the same show. In 2019, she took on Strictly, replacing Darcey Bussell. But what the camera cant capture is the journey she went on to get here today and it started long before she boarded the 7am flight from her home near Frankfurt this morning.

Last year, Motsi found herself at something of a crossroads. Life had never been busier, but with filming commitments, splitting her time between Frankfurt and London, juggling family life with husband Evgenij Voznyuk and their daughter with running her dance school, she found herself increasingly disconnected from the body that had carried her through a lifetime of movement. At the same time, a slew of symptoms arrived with all the subtlety of a freight train.

Id go, Which Motsi am I meeting today? she quips, when we meet on Zoom a week before the shoot me at WH HQ, her at home in Frankfurt, skin still glowing from teaching a dance class. Is it the one whos going to make me cry? Is it the one whos happy? Is it the one who doesnt want to see anyone? She laughs. You wake up every day discovering a new side of yourself. Thats menopause. Her perimenopausal status confirmed by a doctor, she set about applying the same mindset that had taken her to professional dancefloors all over the world to her health. The goal? Future-proofing her body and mind for the next chapter. I dont believe in going with the flow when you have a goal, she continues. Ive been an athlete all my life. Ive been competing all my life. For me, this was about maths.

[smiling person in white athletic wear with long curly hair standing in a white room.]

[dancer in maroon leotard and black leggings posing on a wooden box]

Step change

The square root of that equation can be traced back to January 2025 and that Jekyll-and-Hyde feeling wasnt the only thing driving Motsis health concerns. I noticed a complete shift in my energy levels and I started having pain in my knees, she recalls. I had moments when I thought, Im not feeling [okay] in my body, Im not comfortable with myself. Tougher still was the realisation that she could no longer do the things that brought her joy. I love dancing with my husband, I love moving and I couldnt do that any more. It was making me unhappy.

Feeling increasingly detached from the former version of herself, she decided to undergo a health assessment; the results were a wake-up call. We did a full-body check-up and my doctor said, Mrs Mabuse, you cant continue like this. Alongside inflammation and high levels of cortisol, there was a family history to contend with. My parents and grandparents have type 2 diabetes and I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, and my doctor said, The numbers show that youre at risk. With perimenopause now in full, incessant swing, her doctor made no bones about what needed to happen. He said, If you want to stay healthy in the long term, we need to make some changes.

Reeling from the prognosis and in need of a pep talk Motsi sought advice from the healthiest person in her life, younger sister Phemelo, who lives in South Africa (the siblings also have another sister, fellow dancer and former WH cover star Oti). My sister is very much into training Ironmans, marathons, swimming so I knew she was the right person to get motivation from. I just said, Girl, I cant move. But if Motsi was expecting military levels of discipline, her sisters advice was rather more accessible. She said to me, Listen, the first thing youre going to do is go outside and take a walk, just 10 minutes, then you progress to 15 minutes and we can move from there.

[motsi mabuse]

[motsi mabuse]

Forward motion

That walk marked the first step in a fitness journey that would transform Motsis body and mind. Once her daily stomps had become a habit, she called in the professionals, in the form of PT Dirk Berresheim. The two began to train together once a week we do the heavy stuff with Motsi completing another two to three sessions on her own. Im not there to kill myself thats what Dirk is for, she says of her solo workouts, which look like 60 minutes of walking on an incline, followed by weight training. But she made a point of showing up for every session. Ever the fitness professional, she also started filming her workouts so she could track her progress in real time. In that first video, I was crying because I couldnt even lunge forwards and, of course, Im a dancer, so I had this sad moment. Then came the point where I could do lunges. I still had the ache in my legs, but I could do them.

More than 18 months on, one of her biggest victories is walking on the treadmill incline that once defeated her. The first time my trainer said I needed to walk on an incline, I was suffering. Now Im at the highest incline and its not an issue. Shes since added Pilates to her workout week and, with a beach nearby, shes started swimming, too 20 minutes in the morning, another 20 in the afternoon. As for her nutrition, its undergone a similarly dramatic overhaul. As well as introducing 16:8 fasting eating only between noon and 8pm shes upped her protein uptake with eggs, feta and so much chicken that Im going to start flying soon.

And if fitness and nutrition have formed part of the equation, recovery represents the rest. She credits weekly contrast therapy I do sauna, ice bath, sauna, ice bath and finish with sauna at the end with improving her sleep, along with reducing her levels of inflammation. And having the same day off every week allows for a regular relationship check-in that she couldnt be without. Thursdays are for me I do Pilates and then I have a breakfast date with my husband. We sit and talk about everything the dance school, our daughter. Were together and its so important for our relationship.

[motsi mabuse dancing energetically in a pink workout outfit and leg warmers.]

[person in athletic wear sitting on a window ledge with greenery outside.]

Body politics

But as her body changed, speculation followed. Like many women in the public eye whove lost weight, Motsi found herself facing questions about the way shed done it. I have a deep sense of empathy and pain for women because theyre never going to get it right, she begins, when I ask her about the reaction.Women are shamed all their lives and Im not here to shame anyone. I have very close friends who need the help of GLP-1s and Im not going to make them feel guilty. As for the speculation, she refuses to be baited. People can say what they want. Youre not going to change anyones opinion on anything and Im not going to try. For me, this journey was never about becoming smaller. It was about becoming stronger. Thats my message to women: live your life. Do what you need to do to get healthy. You dont owe anyone an explanation.

The idea that you owe the world your story isnt the only weight-loss narrative shes keen to dismantle, either. As a professional dancer, a healthy body image has been a lifelong battle one that wasnt magically won when the number on the scales went down. Every dancer has had that conversation with a trainer who says lose weight and its the most painful thing youll ever hear, she recalls, of incidents from her youth. [As I grew older] I had to learn to accept that my body wasnt the body of an athlete dancer any more and it would never look like it did. She credits age along with motherhood with helping her build a better relationship with her body. But I dont think there will be a [time] in my life when Ill say, This is it! Ive arrived! [Even now] I have to remind myself to have love for my body. If I see someone with a six-pack, Ill channel my mind: Youre healthy, youre doing the best you can for your body.

It isnt easy to catch your inner critic in the act; harder still to deploy your inner hype woman when shes needed. But for Motsi, such tactics have evolved from an openness to mental health thats come to feel as vital a health habit as her workouts. The topic is deeply personal; losing her half-brother to suicide, aged 18, left a big trauma. But growing up in a home where mental health wasnt discussed meant it wasnt until the pandemic that she discovered therapy. I was doing an online programme and noticed in group therapy sessions that I was hogging all the space, she recalls. Individual therapy followed and among the ways its influenced her outlook is how she shows up as a parent. Because of my childhood, I take everything [my daughter] says really seriously. I ask her all sorts of questions because I want to know where she is mentally theres nothing worse than your child having a mental [health] problem and you not being aware of it.

[motsi mabuse in a teal athletic outfit standing by a window with curly hair.]

Strictly business

All these months on, for all the incline wins and the recovery protocols, only one form of movement has Motsis heart. The best workout for me will always be dance, she says. You learn to connect with your body and other people. You learn resilience. And it allows you to express yourself. She believes this is one reason Strictly is as popular as ever and with TV presenter Emma Willis, comedian Josh Widdicombe and professional dancer Johannes Radebe taking over hosting duties from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, shell have some new colleagues. Its a new chapter and it gives us [as judges] such joy. The theme continues at home, where a cull of the clothes that no longer fit inspired by the new show shes fronting this autumn, Live Better For Less led to a monumental declutter. I thought [the show] could be the motivation I needed [to get rid of stuff] because if Im going to preach it, I need to implement it. It was about releasing, letting go and making space for the new me.

Right now, the new Motsi is on the countdown. With just two weeks of work to go until a precious few weeks off before filming for Strictly begins, shes looking forward to some time enjoying her new health habits. Ill eat healthily, Ill swim and its not about dieting, its about giving back to my body. And more than the saunas and the strength sessions, perhaps the biggest shift the past 18 months has delivered is to her perspective. I expect so much from my body, she continues. I expect it to perform, to be a mum, to work, to travel, to dance. The least she can do, she reasons, is return the favour. When I step on to the beach, Ill be like, Body, now its your turn.

Motsi is hosting Live Better For Less a new TV show about transformation, mindful consumption and money-saving advice launching this September

Photography: Ian Harrison
Styling: Saskia Quirke
Make-up: Florian Fuell using Lancme, Armani and Duff Beauty
Hair: Alisha Dobson at C/O Management using Colour Wow

This interview features in the September 2026 issue of Women's Health out now. Subscribe to WH by hitting this link.

[motsi mabuse smiling on women's health cover wearing white sportswear.]

[Headshot of Perdita Nouril]

Perdita Nouril

Beauty Editor

Perdita Nouril is the Beauty Editor for Womens Health UK. She has worked in the beauty industry for 15 years since graduating from the University of Nottingham. Adept at exploring the colossal world of beauty, she loves to scratch beneath the surface to debunk the myths, decode the science and challenge traditional notions of beauty. You can always find her preaching sermons on the power of a red lip, extolling the virtues of a decent serum and championing the very best female beauty founders.  
 You can find Perdita on Instagram on @perditanouril