Jude Dobson I'm Proud I Gave Dancing A Whirl

Why Stepping Out of Her Comfort Zone Was Worth It

- Donna Fleming

There’s a saying that Jude Dobson held close to her heart when she agreed to take part in reality TV show Dancing with the Stars.

It’s from Sir Edmund Hillary, and goes, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

She kept those wise words in mind as she stepped way out of her comfort zone to take part in the competition.

“It wasn’t about trying to do better than anyone else; it was about doing well for me,” says the TV personality, who was the first celebrity eliminated from the Three show last week.

“I wish I had stayed longer, of course, but I am glad I did it. It was challenging and I took some risks. I am proud of me.”

Jude reveals there were lots of tears shed backstage after she was eliminated, but most of them weren’t hers.

“Everybody was crying and I was like the auntie, consoling them and saying, ‘Somebody had to go.’ Manu [Vatuvei] was hugging me and crying, and I was saying, ‘It’s okay, it’ll be all right’. There were a few tears when I sat out the back with Nadia [Lim] and Aaron [Gilmore] – I felt sad then. But, to be honest, I think I’d had the death knell in the first week when I got low marks.”

Jude and her partner Matt Tatton-Brown (34) received the second lowest marks in week one when they danced the jive. Jude gave it her best, but was hampered by a freak injury that had happened just a few hours earlier, when she somehow got her thumb stuck in Matt’s pocket while doing a lift during a dress rehearsal.

She suffered ligament damage, with her hand swelling and then turning blue. “It was really painful,” concedes Jude, who performed in the live show shortly afterwards with her throbbing hand strapped.