Ulrika Jonsson proudly showed off her gym-toned physique

Ulrika Jonsson strips to plunging white bikini as she basks in UK heatwave.

As the UK's summer temperatures hit record heights, the former Gladiators host, 56, decided to show off her curves in a plunging white bikini. Standing in front of her mirror as she held her phone camera up to her face, the star treated fans to her toned figure, while posing with her hand on her hip in a frilly white two-piece.

She captioned the post: "#hotpotato." But Ulrika was not the only one to bask in the sunshine, showing off the hard work of their training regimes. Christine McGuiness took on a modelling pose, while sat on her sun lounger wearing a beautiful turquoise bikini. Sat back as she revealed her concave stomach, she captioned the post: "You can’t add days to your life, but you can add life to your days."

And Bridgerton actress Simone Ashley also made use of the UK's summer sun. Posting a series of snaps, in one, she is seen taking a selfie while lying down. In another, she is seen holding her adorable pup while wearing a black bikini. Ulrika's candid snap comes after she revealed that she was the first choice to co-host Strictly Come Dancing alongside the late Bruce Forsyth, but had to decline the offer as she was pregnant at the time.

In her column in The Sun, she wrote: "I had no choice but to turn it down, which was heartbreaking." The mum of four became a household name when she hosted Gladiators between 1992 and 2000 but claims she had to "fight tooth and nail" to keep her job, as she was pregnant.

She said that producers felt a pregnant woman was "too high risk." She wrote: "They refused to let me host the last two weeks of international shows and they employed a midwife to follow me around with a chair so I could sit down between takes. I wasn't ill. I was just six months pregnant." She also claimed that there is never a perfect time for a woman to put their job on ice to have a baby.

She said: "As women if we take any extended time 'off work', we risk falling behind on promotions or being considered for other roles. That is, if your employer hasn't already written you off and cleared your desk by the time you go back." This comes in the back of former glamour model Jodie Marsh speaking out about Ulrika's treatment of her as she claimed she felt bullied by the star. Speaking to MailOnline, Jodie who now owns an animal sanctuary, said she was struggling to cope at the time with online trolls who mocked her appearance, and Ulrika jumped on that bandwagon.

Remembering Ulrika's comments, she said: "It was the nastiest thing I've ever read about my physical appearance. She was joking that she and her husband at the time couldn't work out if my nose was a trunk because it was so big and ugly. I was suicidal from being trolled, and I remember crying for days over it. It was the nastiest thing. I'd never met the woman and it was so uncalled for it. It was just out and out bullying." Willing to confront Ulrika, Jodie wrote the star a letter but did not receive a response at the time.

Link to story: https://bikininewsdaily.com/bnd/UlrikaJonssonproudlyshow-5030