I’m A Celebrity star Oti Mabuse faced a health battle immediately after she was born which forced her dad to give up smoking, her sister revealed.
The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 34, is one of 10 celebrities who entered the I’m A Celeb jungle yesterday (Sunday, November 17) hoping to win the ITV reality series.
Writing in her book Finding My Own Rhythm, fellow dancer Motsi spilled the beans on the difficult circumstances surrounding her younger sister Oti’s birth.
READ MORE: Strictly’s Oti Mabuse shares sister Motsi’s one-word reaction to I’m A Celeb decision
READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity’s Alan Halsall takes swipe at Ant and Dec just minutes into ITV show
She wrote: “When the doctors discovered that Otlile (Oti’s full name) had been born with asthma, and that the smoke my father was spreading every day with his cigarettes would damage the baby’s lungs, like pure poison, he gave up smoking the very next day.
“I asked him: ‘Papa, don’t you smoke any more?’
“‘No, that’s over and done with.’ He never smoked another cigarette.”
Oti’s sister also revealed the meaning behind her sibling’s name.
Motsi said her name means ‘she has arrived’ before she added: “That’s exactly how she has behaved since the day of her birth.”
It comes after Oti made a candid admission about leaving her baby daughter, who is almost one, to appear on the reality show.
The two-time Strictly winner welcomed a daughter with fellow dancer Marius Iepure on Christmas Day last year.
She admitted to ITV: “Not seeing my daughter is going to be hard,” before adding her baby “is going to be one my biggest motivators” in trying to win the competition.
Oti added: “I feel ready for a change and doing something completely different. I will have no make-up, concealer, lashes – it’s going to be nice to be laid back.”
She also thinks I’m A Celeb will allow her to “catch up on a whole year’s sleep” that she has missed out on as a new parent.
You can catch Oti on I’m A Celebrity tonight (Monday, November 18) on ITV at 9pm.