Michelle Visage: Strictly has been like a ‘rebirth’

Michelle Visage says Strictly has been like a “rebirth” – after discovering her thyroid was benign on the day she landed in the UK for the TV show.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race judge, 51, was tested for cancer just before she left the US.

Visage, who has had Hashimoto’s disease, where the immune system attacks the thyroid, for 20 years, said: “I feel like a new person.

“After being ill for around 30 years, that’s something I never dreamt would happen…

“My thyroid had doubled in size and I had to have a biopsy shortly before I left America. Thankfully, it wasn’t cancer,” she told the PA news agency.

“I was told it was benign on the day I came to England for Strictly, which was a really big moment.”

Visage believes her breast implants, which she had removed in February, were making her ill.

“It was so difficult to even move and nobody could tell me why, until I discovered thousands of women suffer symptoms from breast implants….

“I had them put in when I was 21 and started to get sick at 24. I’ve battled chronic illness because of them for the past 30 years. It takes around two years to detox from them, but now I’m starting to recover,” she said.

Visage also dismissed the so-called Strictly “curse”, saying her dance partner Giovanni Pernice and his relationship with ex-Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts was more of a blessing.

“Gio and Ashley are so happy and sweet together.

“After all, they met when she competed last year and are one of the many happy couples that have come out of Strictly – I wouldn’t call that a curse.”

Michelle Visage won the Specs Star Style award at Specsavers’ 2019 Spectacle Wearer of the Year Awards in support of Kidscape.

Information is at

loveglasses.specsavers.co.uk/kidscape