Wayne Sleep felt "depressed" over his short stature and even considered taking hormone pills in a desperate bid to grow taller.
Wayne Sleep says being short made him depressed
The 5ft 2in ballet dancer rose through the ranks of the Royal Ballet in the 1960s after becoming the shortest male dancer ever to be into the Royal Ballet School - but he's admitted his rise to stardom was tough because he was overlooked in favour of his taller peers.
He told The Telegraph newspaper: "I was so depressed! I can tell you now, I fought the depression all my life, but now I can just forget about it, because it doesn’t worry me.”
He went on to reveal he was considering taking hormone pills in a bid to boost his height, but he gave up on the idea following a stern chat with the Royal Ballet's founder and director Ninette de Valois.
Wayne added: "'Sleep!' she said to me. ‘What’s this I hear about you wanting to take pills? You can’t. It’s not been scientifically proven. You’ll just have to turn twice as fast as everyone else, and jump twice as high. Now get on with it!’ I didn’t disobey."
During the interview, Wayne went on to talk about his most famous dance of all - his performance with the late Princess Diana at a charity event in London in 1985. The moment was recreated in Netflix series 'The Crown' and the dancer says the scene looked good but he would have happily helped out with details he says they got wrong.
He told the paper: "'The Crown' did very well, I thought. But why didn’t they phone me? ... As soon as she came on [in The Crown], the audience went ‘Aahhhh!’ In fact, it was an intake of breath from 2,000 people."
Wayne added of the dancer who played him in the show: "Well, I’m glad he wasn’t so good as me!"
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