"I didn't have a fancy education. I grabbed opportunities": Dancing on Ice star Donna Air on her rise to fame
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Her on-off boyfriend is the future Queen’s brother and Harrods is practically her corner shop, yet Donna Air is as Geordie as you’d expect from a Newcastle lass who began her career in kids show Byker Grove.
And, believe it or not, those vowels are pretty controversial...
Dancing on Ice viewers swamped social media when she first appeared on the show demanding to know why her native accent had returned after being replaced in previous TV appearances by plummy Knightsbridge tones.
Could it be our Donna, who has lived in London for many years, was trying to woo the great British public?
Who knows. But her voice this week is true Tyne, albeit softly spoken, as she talks of needing a cuppa to skate through the pain of a newly cracked rib.
It was caused by one of skating partner Mark Hanretty’s lifts and is apparently an occupational hazard.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
She shrugs: “Your brain is so occupied you are not thinking about the pain. It’s only next morning I feel a bit bashed.
“But I’m from the North so there’s not a lot you can’t fix with a cup of tea.”
So far, Donna’s not sounding much like her public persona.
Despite news of her break-up with the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother James Middleton last year, she was on his arm for the society wedding of his sister Pippa and the pair are rumoured to be back together.
(Image: ITV)
But it’s clear the 38-year-old has a gutsy core from her working-class roots. They led her to make the choices she did in her youth – getting into acting at 10, then joining sugary pop duo Crush and posing for her fair share of lads mags.
She admits some choices were wrong and that her path isn’t what she’d want for daughter Freya, 14.
The bus mechanic’s daughter ­explains: “I didn’t grow up with a fancy education or lots of choices. I grabbed ­opportunities as they came along.
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“That was right for me but it’s not nec­­­essarily right for, say, my daughter. I made lots of mistakes but you can only do what feels right at the time.”
As a young, attractive girl keen to get ahead – like so many stars who have come forward since #MeToo was launched – she hints there were moments she wasn’t exactly comfortable with.
She insists she doesn’t want to highlight any but concedes: “Both sexes can always end up in situations where there might be an unwanted advance.
“You have to learn from that. You have to educate women and men that it’s ok to stand up and say how you feel.”
(Image: Supplied by WENN)
She has a certain sympathy for the skimpily dressed darts and F1 grid girls dumped this week in the wake of the ongoing sexism storm – perhaps because she understands why some women choose these jobs.
“It’s not so black and white,” she says. “No one should do something that doesn’t feel right.
“That’s what it’s about, not whether you walk around in a bikini or not.
“Women have to fight for what they have and do and should be valued for what they say, who they are, not who they go out with.
“We still live in a slightly sexist society but it’s changing and I’m very happy for my daughter – she is a lot stronger and more self-assured than I was at that age.”
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Strong and assured is certainly what Donna is today. Her spell so far on the ice rink proves it.
Despite the cracked rib she has been hovering at the top of the leader board thanks to routines using her slender 5ft 8in frame to great effect.
Partner Mark is clearly besotted. He gushes: “She has such tenacity. If she had started at seven she would have been a professional skater for sure. Her ability to go through pain is quite impressive.”
But instead, aged 10, Donna was plucked from obscurity to star with other soon-to-be big names like Ant and Dec and Jill Halfpenny in BBC children’s drama Byker Grove. It transformed her life. When she left she joined duo Crush, toured the world and then returned to present MTV and The Big Breakfast.
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Since then, acting and presenting roles have been sporadic and she has launched various businesses including in fashion and jewellery.
Meeting multi-millionaire ­aristocrat Damian Aspinall, her long-term ex and Freya’s father, helped her to her affluent Knightsbridge lifestyle.
They were reportedly introduced by socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Donna didn’t know Damian was son of animal park owner John Aspinall.
The pair split in 2007 because, it was rumoured, of commitment issues. Accusations of gold- digging were bandied by some but today Donna insists she was never aware of them.
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She laughs them off, along with the jibes she used to get about being an airhead – a not particularly amusing play on her name. It’s clear she’s not.
Addressing the latter, she laughs: “That’s really funny. I haven’t been called that in about 20 years.
“I don’t have any doubts about that. I run two businesses and I have four jobs. You couldn’t do that if you didn’t have a brain.”
The former? “I have always earned my own money,” she says, sharply. Nevertheless, she admits she is surprised to be getting such public support on Dancing on Ice.
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And she sounds genuinely, ­endearingly humble about it and her chances of winning. “We have a lot of love which I’m really surprised about,” she says. “Everything is bonus time for me. We are thrilled to still be doing it. I never for one moment imagined I’d be able to stand up.”
But standing up she is, thanks to hours of practice each day. Which, as well as resulting in a cracked rib, is also causing her to shrink.
“I have always been a bit of a skinny minnie but I eat like a bit of a horse,” she says. “I am trying to fatten myself up. I don’t want to get too thin.”
But Donna’s clearly dedicated to the show. So dedicated that she simply cannot, perhaps conveniently, consider life “beyond the ice”.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
So that rules out thoughts of marriage to James or otherwise, more kids or indeed attending anyone else’s wedding – even certain royal nuptials set for next year. As James Middleton’s partner it’s likely she’d be on the guest list but she will only laugh sweetly: “I haven’t really thought about life after ice at the moment.
“I don’t remember what it was like before and I’m not sure what it will look like after. I just don’t want to break anything!”
Then, in her warmest Geordie, she finishes: “Thanks to everyone voting for Mark and me – we are having an absolute ball.”
As she says, she’s no longer a shy girl keen to please but a confident woman.
Thirty years in the business have taught Donna exactly how to handle herself.