Motsi Mabuse's Home Truths (and the one thing you'll find in every room in her home)

Shoes off, breathe in, breathe out. Then I drop myself on this big, big bean bag – it’s my place of relaxation.

Between six and eight in the evening – that’s when I have some of my ‘me’ time. I get to work out, chill or meditate. I can maybe watch a movie, or just lie there and have time by myself.

The bean bag! But, really, my whole place is my happy place. We live in Taunus, which is the forest close to Frankfurt, so I love it when I'm driving back there, feeling like I’m leaving everything, all the stress behind me and I’m focused on being home.

Candles, for sure! I really love vanilla-scented ones, which remind me a little bit of home. I also like to have candles when I’m meditating and I prefer bergamot for a more earthy kind of smell. 

I love the German brand Engels Kerzen, which has these big outdoor candles. It’s wonderful being able to sit on the terrace at night and light the candles.

I wanted a home that I would live in forever, with no stairs or anything. So that’s what annoys me about this place – the stairs! It doesn’t feel future-proofed enough.

I leave my slippers everywhere I go. When I get in the house I take off my shoes and put slippers on, but when I go into another room I take those slippers off and put another pair on – so there’s literally a pair of my slippers in every room!

Cooking. If it even is a chore, because for me it’s meditation and I love doing it. I’ll cook everything, absolutely everything. I love exploring, cooking and feeding my family. I have the pleasure of loving food.

Cleaning up. And ironing - I hate ironing. I just don’t do it!

I get people in, but there’s one room I have left to do and I have this urge to do it myself. This room has got all my working-out stuff and my meditation corner, so I want to make it comfy and nice. My husband is fighting with me because he says I’m turning the house into a fitness centre, but I want this room to have a Motsi energy.

I don’t host a lot, but when I do it, I go all out. I want everything to be perfect. I want to get people to that point where they just relax and have great conversations. 

Because of Covid, I’ve been trying to have a 39th birthday for two years now and it’s something that I really want to host. So I’m going to have a combined 39th, 40th, 41st and 42nd birthday with all my friends and family!

That hasn’t happened in a while – I have a toddler! But I would relax, watch a movie, write, just sit and think… it’s nice to have that moment of silence and chill.

The side of you that only your home gets to see. You kind of let everything go and feel completely yourself. So I miss that quiet, that stillness of being me.

I love my home even more since Covid. We bought our house in November before lockdown, so we felt lucky to have made that move when we did. The first thing we renovated was our terrace so we could enjoy some outdoor space.

Nothing changes, it just becomes a sacred place because it’s where I run away to. The energy at Strictly is intense, so it’s amazing to have this place where nobody can touch me. I think for everyone who stays in the UK it must be extra intense, day in and day out. But it’s just a two-hour flight, so I come in late, I go to the studio and I leave very early the next morning. One night a week – girl’s night out on Strictly!