Strictly star becomes show's highest earner despite quitting show
A Strictly Come Dancing star has become one of the show's highest earners, despite quitting the BBC dance competition.
TV presenter AJ Odudu is one of Strictly's biggest success stories having reportedly earned a huge £1.2million. She is currently hosting ITV's reboot of Big Brother alongside Will Best, where she continues to take home an impressive salary. AJ had to leave Strictly early after suffering an ankle injury during her time on the show in 2021.
Despite this, she has gone on to continue working on hit shows including The Bridge: Race to a Fortune, The Big Interiors Battle and The Greatest Auction. Her current role as Big Brother host is reportedly seeing AJ obtain a £500,000 payout. Her Big Brother wage isn't even included in the latest figures obtained from a newly-filed accounts company.
AJ competed on Strictly in 2021 (PA)
The presenter is currently hosting Big Brother (Sofi Adam for Big Brother/REX/Shutterstock)A TV insider said before appearing on Strictly, AJ was "little known" and hadn't had her "big breakthrough". They told The Sun: "But after AJ dazzled on the dance floor, she became a household name and broadcasters were queueing up to give her work. She didn’t hesitate to take up as many jobs as she could. The result is she’s now one of Britain’s highest achieving and high earning presenters."
The publication reported AJ's company Piggy and Tuffs shows she has £1.8million in the bank. AJ made it all the way to the final of the 2021 season of Strictly alongside dance professional Kai Widdrington. However, she was forced to drop out of the contest when it came to the live final after sustaining an injury to her feet.
Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tour
Speaking about the experience, she admitted that she was particularly tough on herself at first, explaining: "I kind of feel guilty that I was so hard on myself initially." AJ recalled being "angry" at her own body. She commented in an interview with Women's Health: "Yes, I have this body that let me down, but, actually, it carried me to the final; it did what it needed to do."
AJ added: "If there's one thing that I've learned over the past few months, it's that you really should listen to your body." Her departure left chef John Whaite and actress Rose Ayling-Ellis in the competition as finalists, with the latter going on to be crowned the winner of Strictly.
The 35-year-old shot to fame hosting Big Brother’s Bit on the Side, Married At First Sight: Afters and Channel 4 ’s revamped morning show, The Big Breakfast. Although she’s massively successful now, AJ has previously opened up on feeling “insecure” when she went for jobs.
TV producers tried to give her elocution lessons in a bid to “soften” her Lancashire accent. Writing an op ed piece for The i paper, AJ said the early experience led to her developing “imposter syndrome”. She wrote: “Reflecting personally, I think I struggled with what we now know to be called ‘imposter syndrome’ when I first moved to London from Blackburn aged 21 to pursue my television career.
“I’d been buzzing to get there and start achieving my dreams of taking over the telly for as long could remember, but when I started having meetings and doing auditions there was often an emphasis on my accent which became a source of insecurity for me early in my career.”
She added: “That stuck with me: all of my insecurities were being reinforced by the team that were meant to be supporting me and I started to believe that there was, in fact, something wrong with how I spoke.” These days, AJ says she “loves” her accent and says she had “learned to embrace” the things that make her stand out.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
