Michaela Strachan has revealed she only showers twice a week, rarely washes her hands and once ended up with a worm under her skin after eating a sandwich with grubby fingers.
The TV personality, a household name thanks to presenting roles on Springwatch and The Really Wild Show, relocated to South Africa with partner Nick Chevallier in 2002.
Based in Cape Town, Strachan welcomed son Oliver – her only child with Chevallier, a cameraman and producer – in 2005 and has since adopted a casual attitude towards personal hygiene.
Appearing on Monday’s edition of Loose Women – filmed at The Eden Project to mark Earth Day – the presenter, 58, admitted her laissez-faire approach to cleanliness came from the need to conserve water while living in South Africa during a drought.
Asked if she considered herself a ‘nature girl’ because of her rugged surroundings, she said: ‘I think, if you’ve got kids, if they come home really dirty, you know they’ve had a good day.
Michaela Strachan has revealed she only showers twice a week, rarely washes her hands and once ended up with a worm under her skin after eating a sandwich with grubby fingers
The TV personality, a household name thanks to presenting roles on Springwatch and The Really Wild Show, relocated to South Africa with partner Nick Chevallier in 2002
‘I’m not the sort of mother that looks at a child and thinks, “Oh get them washed.” It’s like no, you’ve had a great day, you’ve got down, you’ve got dirty, brilliant.’
Strachan also admitted she’s not fussy about basic hygiene, adding: ‘I’m not fastidious about washing hands and things, I think we’re way too clean, all of us.
‘I went through a country with major, major droughts, and we so we learnt to only have a shower every three days.’
The presenter also recalled an unsavory hygiene related incident that left her with a bug under her skin while she filmed with a group of animals.
She said: ‘I was doing a lot of work in zoos at the time so I was in cages, and I was with animals, and I didn’t wash my hands properly. Then, I ate a sandwich. So, it was from animal faeces that I ended up getting a worm that was under my skin.
‘It would itch and then I’d get my partner to take a picture and you could see this sort of worm under the skin.’
Asked if she was ‘panicked’ by the situation, she added: ‘I got quite attached to this man – literally! I ended up giving him a little name, you know, ‘William the Worm’.
‘So, I had some worm tablets to try and get rid of it [but it] didn’t touch it.’
Appearing on Monday’s Loose Women – filmed at The Eden Project to mark Earth Day – the presenter admitted her laissez-faire habits came from living in South Africa during a drought
‘I’m not fastidious about washing hands and things, I think we’re way too clean all of us,’ she told the panel
The presenter also recalled an unsavory hygiene related incident that left her with a bug under her skin while she filmed with a group of animals
Strachan revealed she ‘had no symptoms’, adding: ‘It was still there six months later. It didn’t affect me in any way. It was a symbiotic relationship between me and the worm.
‘I took double dosage of worm tablets – I had to end the love affair.’
The presenter recently admitted she ‘forgot she had cancer’ until a friend ‘reminded her to celebrate’ the 10-year anniversary since her diagnosis.
Strachan’s world was turned upside down in 2014 when she discovered she had breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.
But in what was one of her darkest periods, Strachan said she ‘wanted to celebrate’ a full decade passing since her cancer scare.
Speaking to OK! magazine, she said: ‘Someone had to remind me of this, but it’s 10 years since I had my cancer scare. They said “Are you going to celebrate?” and I suddenly thought “Oh my god, I should!”
‘Stupidly enough I hadn’t thought about it because I actually forget I’ve had cancer.’
She added: ‘I’m a survivor and I know how lucky I am.’
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