Chelsee Healey is struggling to balance training for her Sport Relief challenge with her ‘Hollyoaks’ role.
The 31-year-old actress is joining her fellow Channel 4 stars for the Clash of the Channels boat race, where her team will be taking on other celebrity rowers from BBC, ITV and Sky but admits that her role as Goldie McQueen on the soap has limited her preparation for the challenge.
In an interview with the Daily Star Sunday newspaper’s TV Life supplement, Chelsee said: "’Hollyoaks’ is really busy at the minute, so I had to find a couple of hours to get into the boat as I felt like I needed a bit more practice. But everything needs to be worked around my work and my daughter."
Chelsee – who previously canoed across the Zambezi River for Comic Relief – admits that she underestimated the training required for the boat race.
She explained: "All I heard was Sport Relief and I replied yes. I want to take part because it’s obviously raising money and awareness for a fantastic cause. Afterwards I thought, ‘What am I doing?’ I had to read back over the email chain to find out what it was.
"I thought, ‘I’ve done the Zambezi River … How hard can a boat race be?’ After training, I’ve been proven wrong! But I’m always game for a challenge."
Chelsee had previously appeared in ‘Waterloo Road’ and ‘Casualty’ before joining the cast of ‘Hollyoaks’ in 2016. She admits that she is very "proud" of the hard-hitting storylines the Channel 4 series has tackled, which have recently included far-right extremism and child grooming.
She said: "I’m so proud of everyone. I don’t feel that ‘Hollyoaks’ got the recognition it deserves. It’s on in an earlier slot, the audiences are a little bit younger, but the work the cast and crew put in is amazing. It’s nice to have that recognition now."
Chelsee Healey struggling to juggle Sport Relief challenge with Hollyoaks
