Davy Russell says his former Dancing with the Stars partner Kylee Vincent and her husband Stephen are going to make wonderful parents.
The former champion jockey danced with South African native Kylee in the RTE competition earlier this year, with the pair reaching the semi-finals.
He has stayed in touch with her ever since, as well as her husband Stephen, who is also a professional dancer on the show.
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Congratulating the couple on the arrival of their baby boy Lando, Davy says this is a “really exciting” time for them.
He told RSVP Live: “They visited recently and I could tell they are going to be marvellous parents. How excited they were around the kids, I could tell a family was something they were looking forward to having themselves.
“Stephen has a fantastic way with kids, my son Liam has really taken to him. They’re nearly best buddies at this point.”
Davy is one of Ireland’s most recognisable sportsmen thanks to his success as a jockey, but taking part in Dancing with the Stars opened him up to a whole new audience and he is grateful for the experience. His children also loved watching him take to the dance floor each week.
He said: “I meet people now who want to speak to me about dancing, not because I rode Tiger Roll. It’s a marvellous programme for the simple reason of the amount of families who sit down to watch it. There’s not many shows left like that, where the whole family can gather and watch together.
“Three of my kids are old enough to have seen me ride, but my youngest Tess never saw that. She knows me as a dancer, rather than a jockey, which is funny.
“It was a great experience and I’d give a lot of credit to Kylee. The whole experience was entertaining for me.”
Davy is excited to enjoy Dancing with the Stars as a viewer in January, and is hopeful some big names in the world of sport will sign up for the upcoming season – including an Olympic hero.
He said: “I’m really excited to see who the new celebrities are. I’d like to see Johnny Sexton, but I’m not so sure he’d do it. Maybe Joe Canning could do it.
“One person I think would be absolutely brilliant would be Rhys McClenaghan. He’d be like a rubber ball, he’d be excellent at it. And he’s actually good craic too.”
Strictly Come Dancing has been marred in controversy in recent months, with claims of professional dancers not getting on with their celebrity partners. Davy feels lucky that this is not the case for Dancing with the Stars and has praised the pros for being so kind and welcoming.
“The most surprising thing of the whole lot was how welcoming the pros are, how hard they work and the effort they put into trying to help us improve,” he said.
“The one thing I found is the more you give them, the more they give back. They are all very helpful in their own ways.”
Since finishing up on Dancing with the Stars, Davy has written and released an autobiography, which is nominated for Sports Book of the Year at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards.
Davy was unsure about putting pen to paper but is thrilled with the response and recognition he has received.
He said: “I think there’s some tough opposition, but I’m very happy to be in the mix. It’s lovely to be nominated.
“When it came to decide whether or not to write a book, I wasn’t sure my story was going to be interesting enough. Obviously people were keen for me to do it, so it has worked out well.”
Former Dancing with the Stars champion and fellow jockey Nina Carberry has swapped sport for politics, taking up a seat as an MEP in Brussels. Grainne Seoige, who also appeared on the show, is currently campaigning to be elected as a TD for Fianna Fáil.
However, Davy has no ambitions to enter the political sphere: “Would you believe, my dad was big into politics. He was a local politician. But I don’t think it’s my next calling.”
Davy Russell is shortlisted for Eason Sports Book of the Year in the An Post Irish Book Awards. You can vote at irishbookawards.ie.
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