When I was growing up, there were very few women athletes. I remember watching Olga Corbett, but Peggy Fleming and Janet Lynn were my role models. I never dreamt that I could be at that level. I remember thinking they seemed so elegant and regal and powerful and feminine.

I've made a commitment to concentrate on my career as an entertainer.

I didn't know about competition or the Olympics until Peggy Fleming won in 1968. My mother looked after all of the competition stuff. I just skated. I didn't really love competition, but that was the only way to get better. You'd see more talent.

There were no competitions on television. The first skating competition I ever remember seeing on television was the 1968 Olympics when Peggy Fleming won.

I grew up in southern Africa but was born in England, so my family was afflicted with the stiff upper lip of the British. When coupled with the violence we saw as children, that can be a fatal combination. Fortunately, I have an outlet for trauma in my writing.

Every parent has those moments where they look at their child and think, 'There's a demon in those eyes and no one can see it but me!'

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

In 2010, my kids came home telling these ridiculous stories about me they heard from school. I realized my kids didn't know my story, and they were hearing it from the goofballs at school.