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The Rugby World Cup and new series of Strictly Come Dancing are both set to kick off soon – and one man who knows just how hard both of them are is Ugo Monye. “Strictly is gruelling,” says the former rugby pro-turned-pundit, who played with Harlequins and England before taking part in Strictly in 2021. “At times you’re training for 12 hours a day. So, you could go for a period of three or four days where all you do is wake up, go to the studio, go to sleep, wake up, go to the studio, go to bed.” He recalls recently telling his friend, comedian Eddie Kadi, all about this, the night before he was announced as a contestant for this year’s show. And because of the demanding schedule, taking care of yourself becomes a top priority. “You try and eat right, try and get as much sleep as possible. The biggest initial challenge everyone will find is their feet, because they wouldn’t have been used to dancing for 11 hours a day,” adds Monye, 40, who was partnered with Oti Mabuse on the show. Trading his rugby boots for ballroom shoes came with some challenges, but he still completed five weeks on the show (Monye and Mabuse finished in 11th place that year). “I remember when I did the quickstep, I had my Apple Watch on, which showed that I danced over 45km in five days,” he recalls. “I remember the first week or two, just the nervousness of rolling out of bed and putting my feet on the carpet because you didn’t know how they would feel.” Having played such a physically demanding sport for 13 years at pro level, Monye was not in bad shape. But Strictly was another “type of pressure”. “When I retired in 2015, I never thought that I’d be dancing, dressed in a low cut, electric pink, short sleeve shirt doing the samba. It’s something I’m actually really proud of,” he adds happily. Like lots of people, Monye, who has two daughters – Phoenix Lilly, six, and Ruby, three, with his ex-wife Lucy – recalls how his approach to self-care has evolved over the years. “Going back to the early 2000s, I was living the dream, right? I was 18 and I got a professional contract playing for my boyhood club, and within a year I travelled the world playing for England,” he says. “I was all, what mental health? I’m flying, right?” Things shifted with time, however, and he began to see the importance of having a proactive approach to maintaining his mental wellbeing. “I remember speaking to a friend, who is really interested in mental health, [about how] people often seek [mental health support] after something bad or traumatic has happened to a point where they actually need it. But it’s more like how you have to go and get an MOT on your car and service it,” he explains. “I think towards the end of my career, I became more aware of it. I have now definitely paid more attention to it and I absolutely love psychology, so I love understanding how the mind works.” Since his retirement, Monye – who has teamed up with Samsung ahead of the World Cup, which starts on September 8 – he has been busy being a dad, alongside jumping into a vibrant broadcast career. Having daughters made him reflect on his own upbringing too – going from being raised by a single mother on a London council estate, to a rural boarding school in Hampshire where he had his education funded (Monye secured a sports scholarship when he was 13). He attributes a lot of his success to his schooling. “I think the person I am now was born at age 13. Everything I was surrounded by was slightly different in that world. It was where I first was introduced to rugby, which then has quite clearly gone on to shape my career, the pathway that I have now, but also my personality. “I think I rely upon myself, I back myself. I had to depend on myself and try and get things done,” he reflects. “I think my personality traits, good and bad, were all developed at boarding school.” Having spent large chunks of his childhood away from family, how does he manage his own work-life balance as a parent now? “How do you manage your work-life balance? Well, you stand in the middle of the park taking a phone call,” he jokes (Monye is in the playground with his girls while we talk). “The time I have with them is absolute quality. For the World Cup, I’m going out for like three or four stints. I’d love them to be able to come out, but with school, it is a bit more difficult. “But I have said to Phoenix already that next year is the Olympics, and she loves gymnastics, so she’s going to be getting on the Eurostar with me. She is watching a lot of clips of Simone Biles at the moment on YouTube and she’s obsessed.” He wants to see his daughters inspired by brilliant women. “I love to watch sports with my daughters,” says Monye. “And we loved watching the Women’s World Cup. I had to get them to come and watch incredible women just do it.” Ugo Monye has teamed up with Samsung ahead of the world’s biggest rugby tournament (samsung.com/uk/big-screen-tv) Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Why do we crave brand new clothes and how can we resist the urge to buy them? How can I improve my teenager’s low mood? Drinking alcohol does not make people look more attractive, study suggests

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Zhanna Samsonova was just 39 when she died, reportedly from “starvation and exhaustion”, thousands of miles from her birthplace in Moscow, Russia. The Instagram influencer’s tragic story has come under scrutiny due to her promotion of a completely “raw” diet, which reports have suggested was linked to her death. Under the name Zhanna D’Art, Samsonova regularly wrote about how she subsisted exclusively on fruit, vegetables, seeds, smoothies and juices while living in Malaysia. Her mother, Vera, attributed Samsonova’s death to a “cholera-like infection” that was exacerbated by her diet. In recent weeks, Samsonova had been unusually quiet on Instagram, with the exception of a troubling post shared just days before her death on 21 July. “Life is meaningless but worth living provided you recognise it’s meaningly,” she wrote, over a photo of herself wearing sunglasses, with a gasping expression on her face. Vera, 63, told Russian newspaper Novye Izvestia how she had begged her daughter to return home as she feared for her health. “I understood that Zhanna was about to die, but still I could not help her in any way. My daughter's life has turned into a nightmare,” she said, via LBC. She told the publication that she had “fought for years” to save her daughter, once an aspiring model, but she “refused to listen”. Samsonova is believed to have left Russia in 2006, buying a one-way ticket to spend the past 17 years travelling around Asia while blogging and practicing yoga. Photos shared by Vera showed a smiling Samsonova apparently taking part in a modelling contest. The images are in stark contrast to the final photos she shared of herself before her death, where she appeared visibly gaunt and malnourished. Her friends also spoke with local media, confessing they feared she was suffering from anorexia and that her diet was becoming increasingly limited. One of her neighbours, who was not named, said she was “horrified” when they met in Sri Lanka a few months ago, as Samsonova looked “exhausted” and had swollen legs “oozing lymph”. “They sent her home to seek treatment. However, she ran away again. When I saw her in Phuket, I was horrified,” the friend said, according to The Sun. “I lived one floor above her and every day I feared finding her lifeless body in the morning. I convinced her to seek treatment, but she didn’t make it.” Samsonova regularly made claims about the supposed benefits of her raw food diet, including that it offered “natural” protection from Covid-19. She also claimed that her body did not “require” water, writing last year that her fruit-based diet meant she had gone without water for the past six years. In recent months, she appeared to have become a fan of the durian fruit, sharing frequent posts that promoted it. “It’s that fabulous time of year again – Durian Season in Thailand!” she wrote in the caption of one of her final videos. “Wake Up And Smell the Durian! For all you durian lovers out there, isn’t it just the best? And for those who haven’t yet experienced the joy of durian, you’re in for a wild ride!” When she died, Samsonova had around 16,000 followers. At the time of writing, however, that number had increased to 33,000. There have been previous cases where people have starved to death due to their extreme diets, including children whose food intake was controlled by their parents. Last year, a vegan mother was sentenced to life in prison over the death of her 18-month-old son, who was fed a diet of raw fruits and vegetables. Prosecutors said that Sheila O’Leary’s son Ezra was severely malnourished, and weighed just 17 pounds when he died in September 2019. O’Leary was convicted by a Florida jury in June 2022 of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child abuse and two counts of child neglect. For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this article, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040 Read More Vegan raw food influencer ‘dies of starvation and exhaustion’ ‘Love, obsession, extortion and murder’: The dramatic downfall of TikTok influencer who became a killer Royal family silent as Meghan Markle celebrates 42nd birthday Who was controversial vegan raw food influencer Zhanna D’Art: Health expert Dr Michael Mosley shares two tips for avoiding osteoporosis Will Smith says Willow ‘mutiny’ changed his view on family success

More than a dozen Black models are boycotting Melbourne Fashion Week in response to what they claim is industry-wide racism. The group of 13 performers are refusing to walk for runway shows or participate in casting calls in order to shine a light on the discrimination they face in Australia, which they say wouldn’t be allowed in Europe or the US. They say the discrimination includes being paid significantly less than their white counterparts, the alleged use of racial slurs, as well as hairdressers talking derogatively about African hair. “Black models doing Australian fashion is a form of self-destruction”, said Sydney-based Awar Malek, 24, told The Sydney Morning Herald. “It is absolutely the most traumatising, and dehumanising, underpaying, and overall mentally draining week and I have no desire to continue to participate.” South Sudanese-born model Nylow Ajing added: “In London, New York and Paris, you could not get away with what the fashion industry is doing here and how it treats black models, but they don’t seem to care or want to change.” The idea for a boycott came after a group of 13 models formed a private group chat to exchange stories and support each other earlier this year. “We never wanted to resort to this but there is only so much we can take,” 30-year-old Jeffrey Kissubi told the newspaper. “Maybe the industry will care about our experiences when it comes from a group rather than one individual that they can quickly silence or just ignore.” They accused brands of “tokenism”, alleging they hire “plenty of Black models” during fashion weeks when they can pay them less. “It’s the only time they hire black models in numbers, and honestly, it’s because we are the cheapest at this time. It’s good PR for them. It looks like ‘wow, these campaigns are really inclusive’, but the next week and the next month, we have no work, and they go back to whitewashing fashion,” Malek added. The casting of models at fashion weeks is decided by exhibiting label, and not festival organisers. A spokesperson for the City of Melbourne said all models participating in the fashion week receive equal pay “with the exception of some higher profile models – including those from diverse backgrounds”. “We were not aware of any concerns relating to diversity or race involving Melbourne Fashion Week. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated,” a statement to the BBC read. Other grievances raised include a lack of diversity across hair and makeup artists, casting agencies, and photographers. Nyaluak Leth, who relocated to the UK where “Black models are celebrated and valued”, said: “In 2019 behind the scenes at Sydney Fashion Week, one of the black models approached me and asked me to braid her hair and I said ‘but darling, there are so many empty seats in the hair section’, but I could tell that she was really reluctant to even ask for help... because she didn’t trust that anyone knew how to do her hair and she was definitely right.” The models boycotting not just MFW, but the larger industry, have said they’re speaking out despite fears for their career in a bid to bring reform. “I don’t want to speak out, but I have to, or nothing will change,” Kissubi said. The chief executive of the Australian Fashion Council, Leila Naja Hibri told the Sydney Morning Herald: “The Australian fashion industry is uniquely placed to actively engage in equitable, diverse and inclusive responsible practice. The Australian Fashion Council is not involved in the running of fashion weeks or brand marketing events, but we do require all AFC Members to abide by our code of conduct. “This stipulates that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination or inappropriate conduct towards others based on gender, race, or national or ethnic origin. ” The Independent has contacted representatives for the City of Melbourne for comment. Read More Hailey Bieber addresses her and husband Justin Bieber’s wildly different styles Britney Spears tells story behind matching double-denim moment with Justin Timberlake How to do Halloween make up and still take care of your skin Hailey Bieber addresses her and husband Justin Bieber’s wildly different styles Britney Spears tells story behind matching double-denim moment with Justin Timberlake How to do Halloween make up and still take care of your skin

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Contrary to prior interviews she’s given, Kim Kardashian is no longer taking extreme measures to chase a “youthful” complexion. Yes, at 42, she looks the way she looks and people have no issue sharing their unsolicited thoughts. But the famous Skims mogul and mother wants to be clear: Her aging process is about maintenance.