SAIRA Khan has revealed she was rejected by Dancing on Ice bosses last year before signing up to the 2019 series.

The Loose Women star is part of the latest line-up which also includes Gemma Collins and Richard Blackwood.

Speaking at the show's launch, Saira said it was second time lucky for her, revealing: "I auditioned for the show last year. And last year, oh no, it didn’t quite work out.

"This year I went 'absolutely no way, nada, forget it, it isn’t going to happen', but my kids were like, 'but this is the only show we want you do mum, you’re making too many excuses, if we say we can’t do our homework cos we might do this, we might do that'.

"My kids shamed me into doing it. As soon as I set foot on the ice rink I thought 'what the heck am I doing here?' Actually, genuinely, it’s working out really well."

That wasn't the case during her early training sessions though, as Saira previously admitted to The Sun Online she had considered quitting.

"You know, everything is hard.

"The mental concentration, the physical effort you have to put in, combining skating with the dance movement.

"I'm not kidding you this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

"I've done quite a few hard things. I've done a bungee jump. I've travelled around the world on my own. But I can honestly say ice-skating takes the biscuit."

Asked if she had ever thought about quitting, she replied: "I did at the start, I really was thinking of it.

"I'd just moved home. I've got two kids at home. I do Loose Women, I do Talk Radio and I'm a mum and genuinely I thought, 'This is a full time job'."

But it was when she met her ice skating partner Mark Hanretty that things really clicked for Saira.

She said: "My partner, Mark Hanretty, can I tell you, I absolutely adore him.

"I want to marry him, he’s so nice and so kind. And you know when you have that time of the month sometimes and stop being nice, he’s just so kind and lovely.

"They’re pros! They deal with female skaters everyday so they know how to handle it, those pro skaters get women, how to hold them, how to talk to them, how to calm them down."

Dancing on Ice returns on Sunday, January 6 on ITV.