Zara McDermott was left with bleeding feet after training for Strictly Come Dancing in men’s shoes.

The 26-year-old TV star has teamed up with Graziano Di Prima for the latest season of the BBC Latin and Ballroom dancing competition and revealed her professional partner advised her to start rehearsals without a traditional pair of high heels.

In the TV Biz column of the British newspaper The Sun, she said: “Graziano told me not to wear high heels at the beginning, but to dance in men’s shoes.

“He went and bought them for me. They were men’s shoes with a small Cuban heel.

“I told him, ‘It’s not working, I have to take them off,’ and he said, ‘No, no, it’s fine.

I said, honestly, it hurts, and I took them off and my feet were bleeding. I said, “I told you I wasn’t exaggerating!”

“My feet are better this week, I feel like they are getting tougher now.”

The former Love Island contestant danced with the rest of the cast, including presenter Angela Rippon, TV legend Les Dennis and former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach, during last week’s launch show, but joked that she performed like a “piece of wood” and promised she had improved ahead of the show’s first run-through on Saturday night (23.09.23).

She said: “Last week I was honestly like a piece of wood, but now I have made some progress.

“I dance the cha-cha-cha and to dance you have to have your legs completely straight.

“I learned that you have to bend your legs backwards to be that straight, which is really unnatural.

“It’s so weird and feels so unnatural, but I can do it.”