Kristina Rihanoff’s life might appear to be a dazzle of sparkles and sequins onstage, but in reality her past is much darker.
In her new autobiography Dancing out of Darkness, the 38-year-old spoke out about her difficult childhood.
She revealed that her mother struggled with alcohol and depression after she lost her job and went through a divorce.
Kristina says: “It was a horrible time. At 13 years old I felt completely alone and I was dealing with a mother who was an alcoholic. I will never forgive my dad for that — he should have been responsible.
“All he would do was yell and shout that she was an embarrassment to him and herself because she was a drunk. How was that going to help a sick person?”
Kristina used her painful home life as a catalyst to channel her energies in her dance career.
She said she found escape with dancing, writing: “No one at dance school knew what my home life was like, so in a way I felt free.
“You can’t think about anything other than what you are doing, the steps you are making right at that moment, so it was a way I could escape into a different world.”
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