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‘I’m in pain from smiling so much’: JoJo Siwa on surviving Mickey Rourke and finding love on Celebrity Big Brother

At 22, the singer and reality TV star has lived most of her life in the limelight. What’s it like to be managed by your mother, run a billion-dollar business in your teens and be dismissed as ‘the lesbian’ by a Hollywood legend?

As the breakout talent of the American reality TV series Dance Moms, she was arguably the biggest child star of the 2010s, at 11 years old instantly memorable for her larger-than-life personality and equally outsized hair bow. Those interactions gave Siwa closure, she says, “Like, ‘Oh, he doesn’t hate me; he’s a very hurt man.’” But Rourke was less invested in teachable moments; he later left the show after what ITV called “further use of inappropriate language” and “unacceptable behaviour” towards other contestants. Young Siwa was often singled out as loud and over the top, despite the show’s high bar for both; even her coach, the famously harsh Abby Lee Miller, described her as “obnoxious; sometimes rude” in the same breath as praising her stage presence and drive to succeed.

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