Foxy Lady Marama's Beyond The Mirror Ball

The Former Politician Is 93kg Lighter and Raring to Go

- Ciara Pratt

Dancing with the Stars has never seen a contestant like Marama Fox. Patu and poi in hand, the former Maori party co-leader is bringing a unique flavour to the reality show, evident by her stunning culturally influenced Viennese waltz, and it’s one she is fiercely proud to represent.

In Marama’s words, she’s “the biggest girl on the show”, but as a mother of nine children, nothing much phases the former politician and she is in it to win it! In part because of the good she could do for a little known charity in Gisborne, Ka Pai Kaiti.

“I’m so excited for them!” she says, buzzing. “They don’t get funding but they know their community and their people. They have a community garden which feeds their kids, they do suicide prevention, help people overcome addiction and they have the elderly in for cups of tea. Whatever their community needs, that’s what they’re doing.”

But perhaps a reason closer to home is to sustain and improve her health after losing a whopping 93kg since 2014! “And that’s why I’m okay with being the biggest girl on the show because I lost all that weight. I had bariatric surgery in 2014 before I went into Parliament. I did that to save my life, basically so I could be around longer for my kids and my grandkids because I was completely overweight,” she recalls. “Each time I had babies, I would start from a bigger place. And I’d lose weight and then get pregnant.”