QUEEN'S RISE TO TOP - THE SKATE ESCAPE

Money was tight when TV show star Vanessa was growing up but she's had the last laugh on rich kids who used to poke fun at her for being skint

-  SALLY McLEAN

DANCING On Ice favourite Vanessa Bauer has revealed she was laughed at for not owning her own skates as a teenager, as she grew up on benefits and her family was "always in debt".

The professional figure skater, who is partnered with Made In Chelsea star Miles Nazaire on the current series of the ITV show, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern, said the ice rink was her "escape from the difficulties going on at home".

"We always lived off welfare. Neither of my parents actually were employed when I was born. So that was always a big struggle, we never had [money], we were always in debt," said the 27-yearold, originally from Berlin.

"When I started doing figure skating shows and started earning money, that was the first time my family actually had money in an account, added Vanessa who is hotly tipped to make it to this year's Dancing On Ice final after she and Nazaire were joint top of the leaderboard for their performance to Slade's Cum On Feel The Noize.

Vanessa's talent was spotted by a coach when she was only four and it was thanks to her offering to teach her for free that she was able to skate.

"I was with my dad at a public ice skating session and it was a Russian coach who saw my potential. She came up to my dad and tried to convince him to get me into ice skating. He was laughing at her, basically [thinking] that's not going to be possible. But she was a young coach and just really saw my potential, so she taught me."

But, she added: "It was really hard growing up because figure skating is such a rich sport, literally all my friends came from wealthy families. So I was always the person that was laughed at because I never had my own skates.

"We were never able to afford them.