BEN FODEN ON
Rugby star just wants to last long enough for his kids to see him skate live
AS Ben Foden prepares for the new series of Dancing on Ice, which returns to STV tomorrow, winning isn’t on his mind.
The 36-year-old is more concerned about whether he’ll be able to stay on the show until the half-term holidays.
That’s when his two eldest children Aoife and Tadhg, will be coming over from Ireland to watch him perform live.
And the rugby ace is desperate to avoid a repeat of the disappointment they went through last year, when the kids – who were expecting to spend the summer holidays with their dad in the US – were barred from boarding a plane due to Covid rules.
Ben, who now plays for Rugby United New York, recalls the moment his American wife Jackie called him after immigration officials stopped his children, now aged nine and six, at the airport.
“I couldn’t leave the country because my green card was processing, so Jackie flew to Dublin to get them,” he says.
“Then, I got this phone call and Jackie was in bits, and that started me off as well. I was trying to get it together because all the lads were around me.
“The kids were so upset, they were lying on the floor in tears. They had their little backpacks on and they were really excited. It was heartbreaking.”
It was only after Jackie arrived back in the US that the couple found out the children could have entered the country.
Despite rules at the time barring anyone without American roots, Aoife and Tadhg – whose mother is Ben’s ex-wife Una Healy – have an American half-sister in Ben and Jackie’s two-yearold daughter Farrah.
Ben says the youngsters – who were finally reunited with their dad several weeks later – are confident he can make his mark on the ice.
“They came over in the Christmas holidays and one afternoon they dropped in to see me practise. Both said they were impressed with what they saw,” he says. “They’ll definitely be cheering me on in the show more than they do when I’m playing rugby!
“It’s a bit of a long shot to think I’m going to win. The standard is high this year and there are some people who are already standing out. I’ll give it everything I’ve got and throw myself into it.
“I want to make it to the end of February – that’s when Aoife and Tadhg are flying out and they’re excited to come to see me in the live show. I hope I’ll make them proud.”
Ben hopes his rugby background will stand him in good stead, especially when it comes to the inevitable injuries.
This week, fans were shocked by a Dancing on Ice video showing Happy Mondays star Bez slipping and smashing his head on the ice.
Former England international Ben, who is paired with Canadian ice dancer Robin Johnstone, says: “In rugby you get hit, you fall down, you get smashed and no one really cares or bats an eyelid.
“But in this, as soon as you fall over,
They will definitely be cheering me on more than when I play rugby BEN FODEN ON ELDER KIDS AOIFE AND TADHG
everyone rushes around going, ‘Are you all right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, don’t worry’. I suppose I’m made of tougher stuff. You really do get a newfound respect for it when you start doing it properly though, just because the little movements that look very easy on TV are actually quite hard.”
Strangely, it’s the chance of things going wrong that Ben says he’s most looking forward to.
“I like feeling nervous,” he says. “In fact, it was one of the reasons I wanted to do the show – to get that feeling.
“If you do it well, that feeling leads to
euphoria, which is the feeling we’re all chasing. I’ve jumped out of planes and bungee-jumped… most extreme sports appeal to me.”
And while he reckons fellow contestants such as Brendan Cole, Kimberly Wyatt and Regan Gascoigne will be seen as favourites because of their dancing experience, he thinks his physique will be his advantage.
“I’m obviously bigger and stronger, and I’ve got a more stable body for lifts. So Robin and I are definitely going to be doing a lot of lifts.”
Ben, who was born in Chester, was marked out as a future sports star at school and was playing rugby for his country at under-16 and under19. But he also had a passion for performing, trying out for Pop Idol at 18 and nearly going to drama school.
“I knew that I wasn’t a good enough singer. If I was going to sing, I would have to be in a boyband,” he admits.
“When I was 18 I had to make a decision between going professional at rugby or heading down to London to St Mary’s acting school.
“But it was always in my head that I only had a window of 10 years to be a professional athlete. So the acting thing was put on the back burner.”
Ben did eventually get to fulfil his boyband dream, competing in Celebrity X Factor in 2019 as one-third of Try Star, with fellow rugby stars Levi Davis and Thom Evans.
He also ended up marrying a pop star – his first wife Una was enjoying massive success with The Saturdays when they tied the knot back in 2012, but the couple divorced seven years later.
The break-up was made all the worse when the rugby star went on to remarry almost a year to the day after their split, having known his new wife Jackie, 36, for just two weeks. They welcomed little Farrah into the family in May 2020 – and Ben says they are all now on good terms.
“I always doff my hat to Una. She’s raised the kids for the last couple of years on her own, and they’re great kids, very loving and gentle, and intelligent too – and they definitely don’t get that from me.
“I’d like them to get into music and acting. They did an advert with Una for McDonald’s and were great in it.”
He continues: “Jackie is just obsessed with Farrah, she’s changed her whole perspective on life.
“And she’s a brilliant stepmum to the other two. She’s very loving and generous.
“It makes me love her even more that she is such a fantastic mother.” Ben says his teammates will be getting together to watch him perform, too.
“All the guys in America are going to have a watch party,” he says.
“Even so, I’m not sure if they’re doing it to cheer me on or to watch me fall!
“It’s the same over here… a few guys are saying they want to come and watch the live show.
“The guys who know me are torn between thinking, ‘He might be good’, or, ‘This could be quality TV’, seeing me embarrass myself while wearing something tight and sequinned.”
Dancing On Ice is on ITV tomorrow at 6.30pm.