To keep my back from getting stiff, I have a strict regime every morning of stretching and do yoga once a week and Pilates. ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in 2008 was great for my fitness. – Cherie Lunghi
People ask me how I manage without a man in the same tone they might ask someone how they’re doing with just one lung, but it’s not like that at all. – Cherie Lunghi
I enjoy art, architecture, museums, churches and temples; anything that gives me insight into the history and soul of the place I’m in. I can also be a beach bum – I like to laze in the shade of a palm tree with a good book or float in a warm sea at sundown. – Cherie Lunghi
I’m a romantic and will only marry for love where there’s respect and compatibility. I’d like to be with someone if the right person came along. I really like male company. I like the male mind. – Cherie Lunghi
I’m pretty good at getting things out of the way, especially paperwork. I hate it sitting about, as it somehow weighs me down. – Cherie Lunghi
There isn’t anything I don’t eat, although I’m not too keen on creepy crawly things. Other than that, I’m quite adventurous. I like all types of red meat, and I’m not a fussy eater at all. – Cherie Lunghi
I just want to say to women, ‘Be yourself – it’s the inner beauty that counts. You are your own best friend, the key to your own happiness, and as soon as you understand that – and it takes a few heartbreaks – you can be happy.’ – Cherie Lunghi
I try to live my life as honestly as I can, and the last thing I want is to pretend to be something I’m not. To pretend to myself I am a sex symbol would somehow be dishonest. I’d feel, in my heart, that I were behaving artificially and that’s the last thing I want to do. – Cherie Lunghi
I’ve got an overactive, analytical brain. I get frustrated, impatient, angry with myself. I swear at myself a lot. – Cherie Lunghi
I really enjoyed staying at an encampment at the top of a hill in the Samburu Reserve in Kenya. You reach it on a small plane; there is no electricity, no city noises and you sleep and shower under the Milky Way, with moths fluttering around a kerosene lamp, knowing that there are elephants and lions roaming free in the valley. – Cherie Lunghi
The lines on your face are your medals. You’ve earned them, so why shouldn’t they be worn with honour? – Cherie Lunghi
I’m mad keen on recycling because I’m worried about the next generation and where all this waste we’re producing is going. It has to stop. I wash out my plastic containers and recycle envelopes, everything I possibly can. – Cherie Lunghi
I can honestly say I love getting older. Then again, I never put my glasses on before looking in the mirror. – Cherie Lunghi
I’ve been a single parent for a long time. It reminds me of being a waitress. As you walk back to the kitchen, requests come at you from all sides. You’re doing the job of two – you have to be highly organised. – Cherie Lunghi
My mum – and my granny and I – would close the curtains, turn on the TV and snuggle up and watch ‘Come Dancing.’ It was actually my granny who was the biggest fan; she loved the show, and she passed on her passion for it to me. I loved the dancing but also the frocks and the glamour. – Cherie Lunghi
I think it’s nice to age gracefully. OK, you lose the youth, a certain stamina and dewy glow, but what you gain on the inside as a human being is wonderful: the wisdom, the acceptance and the peace of mind. It’s a fair exchange. – Cherie Lunghi
The advantage of age is that you swap youth for wisdom. You’re so full of insecurities when you’re young. ‘Who am I? What do I have to do for people to like me?’ You get caught up in things. You get very emotional about things. – Cherie Lunghi
I have that precious commodity – freedom. I can live my life a day at a time, and I am open to whatever the next day brings. I know I sound as if I have been off with some guru in India, but I haven’t. I’ve come to realise the value of being able to decide for oneself. – Cherie Lunghi
There’s something about ‘Strictly Come Dancing.’ Everywhere I go, people wish me good luck; cabbies toot their horns. It’s lovely. I have a theory: in straitened times, there’s nothing like a bit of unapologetic escapism. – Cherie Lunghi
I think being raised by a single mother put me on the outside, and I would watch my mother’s married friends and think, ‘Why does she put him down in public?’ or, ‘Why is he so rude to her?’ It seemed to me that there were very few marriages where the couple were genuinely in a supportive, loving partnership. – Cherie Lunghi
I am simply not such a slave to my vanity, and I don’t want to be, because as you get older you really have to start accepting the inevitable. – Cherie Lunghi
I ski every three years or so. I don’t have the ingrained confidence that others do, but I’ll happily toddle about a green or blue run. – Cherie Lunghi
I come from a strong matriarchal line. I was raised by Gypsy, her sister, Mary, and my maternal grandmother. The result of not having my father live with us meant that, when it came to understanding the opposite sex, it was like working without a map. – Cherie Lunghi
