Strictly Come Dancing star Vito Coppola has revealed he felt he had 'disrespected' his family while facing a serious health struggle during his time in the competitive dance world. The 33-year-old Italian dancer, who joined the BBC One show in 2022 alongside fellow pros Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley and Michelle Tsiakkas, has opened up for the first time about the pressures he faced early in his career.
Before Strictly, Coppola, who started dancing at the age of six, was an 11-time Italian Latin American Champion, a European Cup winner, and a three-time World Championship finalist. On the show, he has reached the final with singer Fleur East, Miranda's Sarah Hadland and former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach, with whom he lifted the Glitterball trophy.
Teenage eating disorder struggle
In his new memoir, Love, Vito, Coppola reveals that as a teenager he ate and purged due to competition pressure, believing he wasn't slim enough or good enough for judges to vote for him. He told the Press Association: "Now it scares me to think that I was on a path to developing a full-blown, long-term eating disorder."
The brush with bulimia happened when he was 17 and lasted only a few months, he stresses, until he went home to his family in Italy, where they helped him recover. "This is the first time I speak about this topic," he said. "Many people in my family and friends don't know this and won't know until they read the book."
Pressure and recovery
Coppola described the intense training and competition schedules that led him to question himself. "I would fall, sometimes I was passing out, not feeling well. I felt very disrespectful for my family and for the people who had always believed in me," he said. He added: "I did something that I will never do again in my life. I was starting to question me, myself, my figure and my body."
Reflecting on the experience, he explained: "If you are in an environment that makes you think that you are not right, you will start to think that there is something wrong with you, that maybe you are not enough and you have to try to act differently and so I did lose myself for a bit."
Life after Strictly fame
Today, Coppola says he is in a better place than he was at 17. He has danced worldwide, won awards and medals, and found fame on Strictly, although he doesn't consider himself famous. "I don't consider myself famous. I'm not a celebrity," he said. "There's a big difference between being a celebrity and being popular. For me, celebrities are amazing singers and Hollywood actors. Through what they do, they are able to influence other people's lives positively. I've always danced, I've always been myself, the only difference is I do it now on TV."
Until a few years ago, because he is shy off-camera, he thought TV wasn't for him, but after persuasion he agreed to appear in the Italian version of Strictly, which led to a spot on the UK show. Love, Vito by Vito Coppola is published by Sphere on August 27, priced £25.
