Inside Strictly star’s debilitating 40-year health struggle: ‘I just learned to deal with it’-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro

Toyah Willcox has suffered from a range of health conditions throughout her life (Picture: Ray Burmiston/PA Wire)

Strictly Come Dancing star Toyah Willcox has opened up about her decades-long health struggle and how she was finally able to feel some relief.

The 80s pop icon, 66, dazzled her way onto TV screens this weekend when Strictly returned for its 20th-anniversary series.

Joining Toyah in the glitzy line-up are Chris McCausland, Jamie Borthwick, Sam Quek, Tasha Ghouri, Pete Wicks, Paul Merson, Nick Knowles, Sarah Hadland, and more, who are all competing to lift the coveted glitterball trophy.

Toyah earned her spot on the bill as a music legend, with a career spanning over 40 years and including eight top 40 singles, over 20 albums, and 40 stage plays.

Away from the bright lights of showbiz, however, the musician previously endured a chronic health battle.

Toyah has made no secret of other obstacles she’s faced health-wise in her life, having been born with a twisted spine, a clubbed right foot, and one leg shorter than the other.

Toyah is partnered with long-standing pro Neil Jones on Strictly 2024 (Picture: BBC/Ray Burmiston)

What she found most debilitating, though, was insomnia, which began taking its toll when she was just 14.

Speaking The Mirror, Toyah – whose Strictly partner is Neil Jones – explained that the condition was first triggered by exam stress.

‘I experienced the typical ­teenage stress that the pressure of cramming for exams, and then sitting there for hours on end doing them brings,’ Toyah said.

‘During what felt like a solid month of exam papers, I just stopped sleeping. Once the pattern set in, it became a habit and I never really addressed it because back then no one really talked about insomnia. You’d just had a bad night’s sleep.’

Toyah’s insomnia progressed, and soon the hours she slept each night ‘had whittled down from five to three.’

‘I hit this pattern where I’d only reach deep sleep between about 8 to 10am and I still have that routine today,’ she confessed.

According to the NHS, a healthy adult usually needs around seven to nine hours of sleep, with insomnia defined as a common sleep disorder with symptoms including struggling to fall asleep, waking up several times during the night, and feeling tired during the day.

The 80s pop icon has battled insomnia for decades (Picture: C Brandon/Redferns)

Toyah’s troubles continued through her time at drama school. As her schedule became busier when she joined a punk band, though, she realised lack of rest wasn’t conducive to her hectic lifestyle.

‘Over the decades, I just learned to deal with the lack of sleep,’ she admitted.

The star has insisted she’s ‘always’ lived a healthy life otherwise, but still finds herself lying awake until 2am most nights.

Having sought advice from professionals, she added: ‘Doctors have told me that I need to ­physically lie there motionless in the dark to give my joints a rest and let my brain shut down.’

Toyah also tried sleeping medication, such as temazepam, but vowed to never touch it again due to its ‘addictive’ nature.

‘It made me grumpy when I tried to wake up and eventually, I just thought, “What’s the point?” So I devised a way of making my insomnia work for me.’

It wasn’t until Toyah tried acupuncture that she was able to ease her insomnia slightly. Acupuncture is a treatment derived from ancient Chinese medicine involving inserting fine needles at certain sites in the body.

The star ‘learned to deal’ with lack of sleep (Picture: Staff/Daily Record/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

She had her first session in 2012, recalling: ‘Afterwards, I was immediately sleeping six or seven hours a night.

‘I had less joint pain, my skin looked great and I was so much brighter and full of energy.’

Toyah proceeded with the treatment for six weeks before moving to once per month for a top-up. Since then, she’s had it every three months to aid with her restless nights.

One thing that’s continued bothering her, though, is the ‘what if’.

‘The only question I do sometimes ask myself is, “If I hadn’t had chronic insomnia for 40 years, would I have achieved more?” and the honest answer is, I’m just not sure.

‘All I know is that I’ll always love acting and singing until the day I walk out on stage and realise that I’m embarrassing myself!’

Toyah will dance for the nation next weekend in front of millions of viewers when the Strictly 2024 cast performs their first routines.

The celebrities will perform their first dance next week as Strictly kicks off (Picture: BBC)

Speaking ahead of the show’s launch, she revealed that her musician husband, Robert Fripp, ‘burst into tears’ when he found out she would be on Strictly.

She added that he keeps telling her how ‘proud’ he is, as the King Crimson star sat in the audience.

Already heaping praise on her professional partner, Toyah said of long-standing pro Neil that meeting him sent her to ‘heaven’.

She’s even promised that she would be the first pensioner to ‘abseil through this studio’.

Strictly Come Dancing airs each Saturday and Sunday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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