Alesha Dixon reveals she found her 20s ‘horrific’

Alesha Dixon has revealed that she found her twenties so ‘horrific’ that ‘you couldn’t pay her to go back there’.

Speaking in a candid new interview the singer and TV personality, 44, also said she ‘likes herself more as a person now’ and told how she is embracing her ageing and feels ‘happy in her skin’ now she’s older. 

Her twenties were a difficult time which most notably saw the heartbreaking end of her marriage to rapper MC Harvey who admitted being unfaithful to her. 

The British rapper met the Britain’s Got Talent judge when they were 21 and the pair eventually married at 26. 

The marriage was short-lived – lasting only eight months – as Alesha discovered Harvey’s infidelity with West End stage co-star, Javine Hilton, in 2006.

Speaking to The Sun about her twenties she said: ‘I like myself more as a person now than I did back then. My 20s were horrific. You couldn’t pay me to go back there.’

Throwback: Speaking in a candid new interview the singer and TV personality, 44, also said she ‘likes herself more as a person now’ and told how she is embracing her ageing and feels ‘happy in her skin’ now she’s older (pictured in 2002) 

She added about ageing: ‘There’s absolutely nothing you can do about getting older, so I’m embracing it.

‘I am happy in my skin. I actually prefer the way I look now to when I was in my 20s.’

Alesha is now married to Azuka Ononye and the pair share two children Azura, nine, and Anaya, three.

In the wide-ranging interview she also spoke about how she’s more confident in her career and business decisions now she is older – and works with no manager as she ‘trusts her intuition’ to be able to represent herself. 

Exes: Her twenties were a difficult time which most notably saw the heartbreaking end of her marriage to rapper MC Harvey who admitted being unfaithful to her (pictured in 2004)

Alesha also teased she will release more music in 2023 from her own label. 

It comes after earlier this year MC Harvey spoke about the moment he confessed to Alesha that he’d been cheating on her, admitting in an interview: ‘I thought she’d kill me.’

The So Solid Crew star, 43, had to confess to a fling with singer Javine Hilton in 2006 after details of the pair’s affair leaked out.

Harvey explained how telling his then wife Alesha what he’d done was ‘the worst thing he’s ever had to do’.

Opening up on the James English podcast the rapper said: ‘The day I left Javine’s house, it was so weird. I’d left her house and I was driving home to my marital home and as I’m two miles from my house, she (Javine) rang me and said ‘she knows, she knows’ as I pulled up on my drive.’

‘The worst thing I’ve ever had to do is tell a woman I cheated on her.

‘When I walked in the front room, Alesha just said to me: ‘Do you want some food Harvey?’ and I’m thinking ‘Yeah of course I will.’

Harvey said he then sat down with Alesha to watch TV where, ironically, an episode of the Tyra Banks Show about cheating was playing.

History: Alesha first found fame in the girl band Mis-Teeq with Sabrina Washington and Su-Elise Nash

He continued: ‘She was there watching TV when she paused it and my heart sank. She said: ‘How long has it been going on Harvey?’ and that was it. 

‘I thought she was going to kill me. To this day, it is the worst two days I’ve ever spent in my house.’

Harvey went on to say he received a phone call from his mum telling him to stay in the house as he ‘owed her that’ after ‘breaking her heart.’

He added: ‘It came out in the papers and everyone hated me. I was a love rat. My mental health was like ‘oh my god.’ I went from being in a celebrity relationship and being loved to being hated within 48 hours. But it was self-inflicted.

‘When I went through the madness of it all, and I went through the Alesha stuff and then obviously when I got with Javine, the mother of my daughter, I should never have been with her. 

‘It was a toxic relationship and once I escaped from it and I got out of the whole situation, I said to my mum one time, ‘mum I feel like my dad.’ 

‘My mum said to me ‘don’t you ever say that, there’s a difference between you and your dad, you’ve got a conscience, he hasn’t.’

‘It’s a lot of pressure, the money that you’re earning, women throwing themselves at you and it’s only now I thought to myself, why did I get into a relationship at that age? 

‘I’m old school, and, I love being in love, I love the family unit, but I should have learned more about myself and I should have got the s******* out of my system.’

During an appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, former Strictly Come Dancing champion and judge Alesha confessed she felt ‘lost and empty’ when her marriage to Harvey fell apart.

She said: ‘I didn’t eat for a few days. I just remember sitting on the floor in my house. I felt lost, I couldn’t find the words. 

‘You ask yourself those questions: Why? What have I done wrong?

Happy: Since the split, Alesha married dancer Azuka Ononye in 2017 (pictured together in 2017)