Katja Mia has opened up about her experience of being trolled and fat shamed while she was on Dancing With The Stars.
The Six O’Clock Show host was paired with dancer Ervinas Merfeldas on the 2024 series, and became the sixth celebrity to be eliminated from the show.
Speaking on Doireann Garrihy’s podcast, Doireann and Friends, the presenter discussed the time she received a nasty message on Instagram from a female follower who body shamed her.
Discussing her journey to becoming a TV presenter, Katja reflected on the feeling of being exposed and the need for thick skin.
“Putting yourself out there isn’t easy; you have to grow really thick skin fast,” she told listeners.
Speaking about her time on Dancing With The Stars, Katja recounted a specific experience in which she needed thick skin.
Katja spoke about how she was fat-shamed on her own Instagram page via DM, and how her image was attacked.
She laughed as she recounted the story, and said: “Right now I am laughing at it, but that is my coping mechanism; I laugh when I feel uncomfortable…”
The presenter confessed the trolling initially went over her head, but the more comments she saw, the more it got to her.
“I think for a while it wasn’t getting to me, and then the more comments I saw, and because I was working so hard and I probably was a little bit overworked, it all started getting to me, and I got emotional about it,” she explained.
However, she credited the people behind the show for protecting her, and continuously checking in with her regarding the negative comments.
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“That’s the thing with a show like Dancing With The Stars; like you’ve got that protection there, and if they see that anything negative is happening to you or your experiencing something awful online, they will always check in and that’s what they did,” she said.
Katja spoke about the overwhelming support she received from women, including those in the dancing world.
Thanking Dancing With The Stars judge Loraine Barry for defending her live on air, Katja told Doireann, “Loraine came on after my performance and gave just such an iconic speech.”
“She was like, ‘you don’t have the credentials that I do!'”
