Dancing on Ice's Nile Wilson inundated with support after discussing addictions

8 March 2023

'Dancing on Ice' favourite Nile Wilson has been overwhelmed with messages of support after discussing his addiction battle and mental health battles.

Nile Wilson has been overwhelmed with support for being open about his addiction and mental health battles

The Olympian has described competing on the ITV skating show with his professional partner, Olivia Smart, one of his “proudest” achievements, which includes winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The 27-year-old gymnast told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I’ve had thousands of messages, which is special.

“Messages saying how incredible it is and how it’s touched people and made them think differently, made them sort of realise that maybe they weren’t quite right, without them knowing.

“Above any of the things I’ve achieved, winning medals, that’s one of the proudest things I’ve done.”

Nile - who is the currently odds-on favourite to win the ITV1 competition, which is judged by Oti Mabuse, Ashley Banjo, Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill - admitted being in the limelight again could've been a “huge trigger” for him.

He said: “I’m aware this process could be a huge trigger for me and I’m already setting things in place to make sure that I don’t have a huge dip off the back of the show. Certainly a break afterwards.

“I’m feeling happy. I’m enjoying the process, I’m enjoying performing again. And I’m very grateful to be in this position.”

Last month, Nile - who retired from professional gymnastics in 2021 due to his injuries - called leaving sport behind “completely heart-breaking”.

He said: “I wanted to be the best gymnast in the world, and then it's taken away from you. That knocked me for six and shattered my mind.

“It was tough to accept that I wasn’t going to be the athlete I once was. That's when my behaviour started to take a dive. It was tough to be positive because of the severity of the pain. I was one of the fittest athletes on the planet, then I was struggling to walk. I started to take lots of pain relief and drink lots of alcohol to try and numb the pain.”