Copyright birminghammail
Tonight, American actress and singer Rachel Zegler will perform on Strictly Come Dancing - but what do you know about her? Born in New Jersey, she rose to fame with her performance as María in Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of West Side Story in 2021, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. And her career her flourished since, with Zegler taking on roles in superhero action film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and playing Snow White in the new Disney remake. Read more Strictly Come Dancing results leaked as fans say 'one of the worst spoilers ever' Zegler is also known for her amazing theatre performances, and is currently playing the titular character in the musical Evita. She will be performing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," accompanied by two of the show's professional dancers, on the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom floor tonight (Octber 26). But what else do we know about her life away from her career? Below we look at the racial discrimination she has faced, her famous boyfriend and the apology she issue after she was met with backlash over a Twitter post about Britney Spears and her sister. Zegler revealed she had faced racial discrimination during her childhood due to her mixed ethnicity. Her mother is of Colombian descent and her father is of Polish descent. Zegler has spoken out against colorism regarding the Latino community. In 2022, she stated: "I'm a white Latina. I don't get stopped on the street for the way that I look. That's my privilege, but when I speak Spanish on the subway, I've been spit on. "I've been told to go back to where I came from, even when I was born in suburban New Jersey. It doesn't matter to these people. "But they're the same people that will hide behind a profile on Twitter and tell me that because my dad is American or because my mom wasn't born in Colombia or because I wasn't born in Colombia that my identity is invalid." In January 2022, Zegler issued an apology after she was met with a fierce online backlash over a since-deleted video in which she gave a dramatic reading of Britney Spears's Twitter messages online to her sister, Jamie Lynn Spears. She later issued an apology on the platform, writing: "While I meant no disrespect whatsoever, I should have thought about how this could be perceived, and I'm so sorry for upsetting or disappointing anyone. "This is not a situation to be taken lightly, and we should all be lifting Britney up in this pivotal time." Zegler was previously dating actor Josh Andrés Rivera. They started seeing each other in 2021 after meeting on the set of West Side Story. They went on to star alongside each other in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes together and regularly shared their love on social media, with Zegler calling him the 'love of my life'. But earlier this year, a source told Us Weekly that Zegler and Rivera “quietly” broke up “late last year.” The confirmation came shortly after photos of Zegler kissing her Evita co-star Nathan Louis-Fernand at the BST Hyde Park Music Festival circulated. Zegler has since shared photos of them on holiday together. Louis-Fernand is 27 years old, and is a theater dancer best known for performing in Magic Mike Live, Hamilton, & Juliet, and The Lion King. He also appeared in the 2023 Timothée Chalamet-led film Wonka. He’s now a backup dancer in the West End production of Evita, the show that Zegler currently stars in.
