Kerre's dancing on air 'I'M SO READY FOR A KNEES-UP!'

The broadcaster is glammed up and ready to strut her stuff on NZ's favourite dance show

- Wendyl Nissen

There's a big chance that if Covid hadn't come along, we would not be fortunate enough to see popular broadcaster Kerre Woodham on this year's season of Dancing with the Stars.

Kerre loves a challenge, having run marathons and climbed mountains, but she's always said a polite no to the DWTS producers when they've come calling in the past.

“Just the thought of it terrified me," says Kerre, who has watched every season of DWTS from the beginning. "I couldn't help but think how brave the dancers were to go out there and expose themselves like that."

But then Covid came along and in Kerre's words, it “sucked all the joy and life out of everything around me”. So, when she was asked if she would consider it this time, she said yes.

"I thought, ‘Do it! It's a catalyst for change for me because I've put on weight during lockdown, and I've lost all my motivation. And it's also a bit of fun with the sequins and fake tans and gorgeous flowy dresses - all of those things that have been missing from my life for the last few years."

Another change she is making is returning to her maiden name Woodham following the break-up of her marriage to Tom McIvor.

"I wanted to show Tom and I were a team when we were together – and now we're not, it's time to go back to my own name," she explains.

When Kerre turns up for her first performance on DWTS, it won't be her first step out of her comfort zone. She does love to put herself in situations where the going is tough, such as training for, then running the New York marathon and writing about it in her best-selling book Short Fat Chick to Marathon Runner, and then following that up with a five day climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak.