While it’s not officially pegged as a dating reality show, Dancing With The Stars has a fruitful history of creating cute couples – and it’s not hard to see why.
Getting hot and heavy with a sexy stranger while wearing very little clothing is the perfect recipe for romance.
When you’re training one-on-one for hours a day over 10 weeks, it’s easy to see how these celebs form an attachment to their gorgeously toned and fit professional dance partners.
So to celebrate the premiere of Channel 10’s new season of Dancing With The Stars next week, let’s take a look at all the adorable couples who have hooked up on the show.
Rachael Finch and Michael Miziner
Myer ambassador and Channel Seven host Rachael Finch met her now husband Michael Miziner on Dancing With The Stars in 2010.
It was love at first sight for the pair, as Rachael explained in her 2016 book Happy, Healthy, Strong.
“I had no clue who my dancing partner was going to be. I walked into the room and my jaw dropped – before me stood the most attractive man I had ever seen,” Rachael wrote of the first time she met Michael.
“I just remember walking in and thinking, ‘He has got to be gay!’ I was instantly attracted. He had such a beautiful aura and all I could think was ‘OMG!’ So during my first dancing lesson in an unfamiliar room with an incredibly attractive man and feeling so out of my element, I started to fall in love.
“As it turns out, he wasn’t gay … After that first rehearsal, Misha (as I love to call him) and I went to the café downstairs for coffee. We sat chatting until the café staff wanted to close up shop, and then more or less spent every day together for the next ten weeks. I had never felt like this before.”
But the couple took things very slowly, and tried to hide their relationship from the public.
“We got very close very quickly, although we didn’t share our first kiss for several weeks – which is something I valued early, because it made the relationship even more special.
“We tried not to show affection on Dancing with the Stars and to keep our blossoming relationship under wraps – until a paparazzi snapped us holding hands outside a rehearsal studio one afternoon. Hehe! I had the most magical time on the show, getting to meet such an incredible person and discover my love of dance.”
Now the couple have two children together, Violet and Dominc, and she has her own dance-inspired exercise program called Body By Finch.
Fun fact – Michael was Bec Cartwright’s dance partner when she appeared on DWTS in 2004 – and they won the entire competition!
READ NEXT: Rachael Finch on life, love and motherhood
Luke Jacobz and Luda Kroitor
In 2008, the former Home & Away and McLeod’s Daughters actor was lucky to be paired with Luda, who is a former five time world salsa champion.
The duo’s sizzling offscreen chemistry translated into awesome results on the dancefloor too, with the pair dancing their way to the top and winning the competition.
Luke and Luda dated for two years until 2010 when they split, and now Luda is married to a new partner, Matt Wilson.
But there’s no hard feelings between the old flames.
When asked in 2012 about the engagement by the Daily Telegraph Luke said: “I’m tickled pink, I’m over the moon. Luda has wanted to get married and have a family of her own for as long as I’ve known her.
“We’re very, very happy for her – happy for them both,” he said.
READ NEXT: All the past winners on Dancing With The Stars Australia
Tom Williams and Kym Johnson
Long before Channel Seven personality Tom Williams hosted its afternoon news program The Daily Edition, he was swanning around with his shirt off on Dancing With The Stars in 2005.
He was lucky enough to be paired with his beautiful blonde dance partner Kym Johnson, who was actually engaged to cricketer Shane Watson at the time.
But as she wrote in her 2012 book, she ended her three-year relationship with Shane and soon became involved with Tom.
“I was in a relationship for three years (with Watson) and thought I was going to marry him and have kids — that takes a while to get over,” Johnson wrote in 2012.
The new couple set our TV screens on fire with their barely-there costumes and sexy routines. We saw a lot of Tom with his shirt off – not that we’re complaining!
Watch Tom and Kym fire up the dance floor below, then keep on reading for more DWTS couples.
Tom and Kym broke up relatively quickly, but now US-based Kym is actually married to another man she met on the American version of Dancing With The Stars, her dance partner Robert Herjavec.
The couple met in 2015 when they were paired up for season 20 of US DWTS and they now have an adorable set of twins together.
Tom also married now, to Australian fashion designer Rachel Gilbert.
Now swipe below to see photos of Kym then and now – she still looks incredible!
Adam Brand and Jade Fletcher
Aussie country music singer Adam Brand hooked up with his much-younger dance partner Jade Hatcher – she is 19 years his junior – on the 2009 season of DWTS.
But the age gap meant nothing to Adam and Jade. The pair fell in love over the intense dance-rehearsal period
“The way I can describe it, is we relied on each other and became real friends. “We just fell in love, we fell madly, head over heels in love.”” Adam told The Daily Telegraph.
“You meet someone and you click,” Adam said of his connection to Jade.
“You can slow the process down and be careful and cautious and you can do all those things. You can deny it, you can fudge it, but it was happening.
“It gets to a point where you just make a decision that no matter what happens, no matter what career things, you can’t do life without that person.”
The couple married and moved to Nashville in 2010, but their relationship later broke down and they divorced.
“It was all too much. Too big. Too much. Too many things changing, too many things different. If I could do things differently, I wouldn’t expect so much from someone,” Adam said.
Jett Kenny and Lily Cornish
During his stint on Dancing With The Stars in 2019, Lisa Curry and Grant Kenny’s son Jett Kenny sent viewers’ tongues wagging over his red-hot sexual chemistry with dancer partner Lily Cornish.
“Jet’s really sexy, that’s obvious,” Lily said on the show, while Jett revealed: “There are times when we get close in some lifts or some holds or something like that and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a spark.”
The pair had an undeniable connection and were photographed holding hands, despite Lily reportedly still having a boyfriend from before she met Jett.
Jett repeatedly denied suggestions he and Lily were anything more than good friends, but he told Now To Love they still keep in touch.
Lily now works as a professional dancer with the travelling dance group Burn the Floor, performing around the world, and Jett recently went and visited Lily in Europe.
“Yes, I went and got to experience what she does for a living. The dancing you see on television is nothing compared to what incredible athletes those dancers are … seeing her do the thing she loves at full steam was something else,” Jett revealed.
The pair try to keep in touch, despite the distance and their busy work schedules.
“We chat when we can. She’s very busy over there and and is travelling around the Baltic Sea, so she doesn’t always have reception or WIFI,” he said.
Lily is now back in Australia for the brand new DWTS season – she’s matched with Richard Wilkins’ son Christian.