Dancing With Stars judge and the curious case of his Tinder age
Dance judge’s online dating prof ile says he is just 34
HE’S THE Dancing With The Stars judge who’s never stuck for a word but when we contacted Julian Benson this week he was unusually coy.
We had just checked him out on Tinder, the dating app. There he is, bright as a button, posing on a beach. Presenting himself as a fun-loving guy, the age underneath his youthful-looking picture is 34.
Now they say TV adds 10lbs and a few years to most people but, notwithstanding that, we decided to check for ourselves.
Company records seem to suggest that he was born on February 26, 1971 – making him a mere, ahem, dozen years older than his Tinder profile suggests. When we contacted him, the normally ebullient Julian declined to comment.
The text under the picture of him posing on a beach reads: ‘Honest fun loving guy here checking this app out to see what its all about! :-) Sure I guess if your not in ya can’t win! :-) Coffee? :-)’
According to the RTÉ website, Julian is a choreographer, dance producer, dance director and talent agent-extraordinaire.
Hopefully, the self-proclaimed ‘Captain Sparkle’ will have recovered his voice in time for the new series of DWTS, which kicks off next Sunday.
The contestants include sports broadcaster and housewives’ favourite Marty Morrissey, Jake Carter, brother of country star Nathan, Olympic race-walker Rob Heffernan, comedian and actress Deirdre O’Kane and publisher Norah Casey. Conor McGregor’s fitness model sister Erin and Britain’s Next Top Model runner-up Alannah Beirne will also battle it out. Other dancers include presenters Bernard O’Shea and Maia Dunphy, former rugby star Tomás O’Leary and sportswoman Anna Geary. Amanda Byram and Nicky Byrne will return as hosts, while Julian will be joined on the judging panel by Loraine Barry and Brian Redmond.