Dancing With The Stars fans were left devastated when MasterChef legend Julie Goodwin was eliminated from the competition after only her second dance. While slightly disappointed with the outcome, Julie says she is “grateful for the experience”.
“I was sad because I still had a couple of really beautiful dances in the can,” Julie, 53, tells New Idea following her exit. “And I had a couple of really special outfits I was looking forward to wearing.
“But I was just thrilled to have had the opportunity. It’s a totally different experience to what I’m used to. I’ve never been a dancer. I’ve never been any sort of coordinated at all. So, it was quite an experience for me.”
Julie’s elimination also meant that her dance partner Andrey Gorbunov’s time on the show was cut short. Residing from Russia and living between Singapore and Australia, this year marked Andrey’s inaugural appearance on the show.
“He’s amazing,” Julie enthuses. “He is a ballroom champion and has placed fourth in the world. His ability to impart his knowledge and his patience is absolutely second to none. He took me from someone who literally fell up the stairs of the studio on the first three days of rehearsal to someone who could execute a Viennese waltz. I think that’s an outstanding achievement.”
The public were well and truly in the chef’s corner throughout her time on DWTS. But her biggest cheerleaders remain her family.
“They loved it,” Julie gushes. “My family is so special; they are just behind me with whatever it is I decide to do. The boys came down to be in the audience a couple of times. They are just so supportive.”
Sadly, Julie was unable to perform her first dance on the show due to a serious calf injury. The mother-of-three sheds light on what we didn’t see following the accident.
“The recovery was slightly different in real life than it is in TV Land” Julie tells New Idea.
“In TV Land it was two weeks from the injury to the first dance, and two weeks from the first dance to the second dance. In real life, it was six days after I was injured that I danced and then three days after that I had to dance again. The injury was still very fresh.”
She adds that, after her foxtrot, her leg was “blown up like a balloon”.
“It wasn’t ideal to be dancing on that kind of injury, It had a massive impact on our ability to train. So it was such a shame. But that’s the sort of thing that happens on a show where you’re pushing yourself physically in ways that you’re not used to, and I was really keen to see it through.”
Today, the MasterChef alum says she is “walking around as usual”.
“I get a little twinge every now and again, but then it’s like, ‘Oh well, I don’t have to do the jive this week’,” she laughs.
Despite the pressure that comes with training for the ballroom, Julie maintains that the MasterChef kitchen is “way more stressful”.
“The dance floor is outside my comfort zone. But, at the end of the day, I don’t dance for a living – so if I muck that up, nothing’s going to fall apart,” she explains. “To go back into the MasterChef kitchen with my credentials on the line so publicly, that was truly scary.”
Dancing with the Stars airs weekly, on Sundays at 7pm on Channel 7 and on 7plus.
