The glamorous BBC journalist, 48, married former Royal Marine Mike Heron in 2010 and, after two children Clemency, six, and Wilbur, four, wants to squeeze back into her wedding dress.
While other celebrities dream of lifting the glitter ball Kate revealed: “My only aim now is to learn how to dance and to get back into my wedding dress because a lot has happened in that time.
“Two stone. Everyone talks about the two stone rule…”
Essex-born Kate wants to renew her wedding vows with her children alongside her.
She said: “I think that’s a nice idea because I’ll be 50 in two years. That was my absolutely best day, when I felt absolutely at my best, so it would be nice to get back to that.”
And she saucily admitted her appearance on Strictly has proved something of a marriage tonic – with Mike paying far more attention to her now she is about to be paired with a hunky professional dancer.
Addressing the dreaded “Strictly curse” which has seen off many relationships during its 14-year run, she said: “I married the love of my life, he’s my soulmate, so we have no worries in that department. But when I came home on the first day after the group dance – and my husband’s a military man, completely sort of in himself – he went, ‘Oh, so who were you dancing with today?
“And I went, ‘Oh you know that new one’ – as if he didn’t know because I’ve been going, Oh, look at him – the Italian [Graziano Di Prima]’. And I saw a little flicker. I’m just saying: he’s upping his game.
“Never mind the Strictly curse, this is marriage magic. I’m getting texts going, ‘You looked really hot this morning, babe’.”
Answering vicious social media trolls who say she is abandoning her children for the BBC dance show, Kate said: “I take my time with my children very seriously.
“My children will both be at school when I am training. It’s the reason I have agreed to do Strictly this year.
“I have simply told Wilbur that mummy will be shaking her bottom and as anyone with a four-year-old knows, any talk of bottoms is utterly hilarious. So he’s all in favour.”
Of the competition, she said: “There’s a lot of pressure given that my dancing was once described as a worm shedding its skin by one of my sister’s boyfriends – very rude. Let’s hope Craig doesn’t pick that as one of his comments.
“I won’t mind, honestly. I do have a little smidgen of rhythm. We’ve established that. So we just need to build on that and if I can put one foot in front of the other, I will have fun.”
Surprisingly, former Pussycat Doll and bookies’ favourite Ashley Roberts is also nervous about the demands of Strictly.
She fears the limited dance moves she has from her time as a pop star means it will be hard to impress the notoriously tough judges.
American Ashley, 36, who made a name for herself “twerking” or “booty popping” (sexy hip thrusting) in the modern Burlesque group and dance ensemble alongside former X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger, said: “I don’t think [judge] Shirley Ballas is going to want me to twerk on the ballroom floor.
“The pros know this world. I’m putting all my trust and faith in them. “Having the lead guy is just foreign to me because we did choreographed pieces and what I’ve done in the Dolls was booty popping – and I don’t know if there’s any booty pops in the Tango.”
