(ABC/Byron Cohen)
Len Goodman is the esteemed judge on Dancing With the Stars and he has returned for season 24 of the show. Let’s get to know Goodman’s life outside the show with his wife and family. Read on for details on Sue Goodman.
1. Goodman Married Wife Sue In a Surprise Ceremony
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In 2012, the Daily Mail reported that Goodman married his longtime girlfriend, Sue Barrett, in a surprise wedding. The couple invited 30 family and friends, who thought they were attending a nice Sunday lunch. Goodman admitted that he told his mother about the wedding so that she wouldn’t be shocked into having a heart attack on the big day. Goodman told Daily Mail:
I’ve had a marvelous day, and now my gorgeous Sue is the new Mrs Goodman. Did I pickle my walnuts? Of course I did! I wanted it to be a low-key affair, so we didn’t tell anyone except my 96-year-old mum as I didn’t want her having a heart attack with the surprise.
2. Previously Goodman Was Married to His Former Dance Partner Who Cheated
Len Goodman married his former champion dance partner Cherry Kingston in 1972, but the couple divorced in 1987. In Goodman’s autobiography, he wrote that he felt pressure to marry Kingston, explaining:
Two weeks to the day before our wedding, my father had a massive heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. I should have taken this as warning number one: postpone the wedding. But things were too far gone with all the preparations, and I felt a huge pressure to carry on from Cherry and her mother, Joy.
Goodman continued:
Many dance marriages split up because one day you look across at the person you’re with and realize you’ve got nothing else in common – there are not enough metronomes ticking. That’s exactly what happened to Cherry and me.
According to Goodman, Kingston cheated on him with a multi-millionaire french man named Michel, who they met on vacation.
3. Sue Goodman Is a Dance Teacher
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Sue and Len Goodman had reportedly been together for well over a decade before they married. Sue Goodman, 50, is a dance teacher, so the two have a lot in common.
When it comes to Len Goodman’s skills in the bedroom, he joked to The Sun:
I am good in bed – I don’t snore. I don’t take the duvet. I just lay there and go straight off to sleep. That’s all you want out of a bloke … As you get older things conk out. It’s a bit like a car. As long as it’s something the mechanics can fix, you can chug on for a few more thousand miles.
4. Len Goodman Has One Child
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Goodman has just one child, a son named James. According to The Daily Mail, his son is not from either of his relationships with his wife or ex-wife. He had a longtime partner named Lesley, with whom he had his son. Goodman previously wrote that his partner Lesley “decided to give up nursing and live with me and help me run the dance school – which was great, because she was full of ideas. Things rolled along pretty nicely for a year until out of the blue Lesley dropped a bombshell. She was pregnant!”
Son James was born in 1981, but at age 12, he reportedly left to live with his mother when she and Goodman split. James Goodman is reported to be a dance teacher at his dad’s Goodman Dance Centre.
5. When He Proposed, Goodman Did Not Get Down On One Knee
Missing Strictly? Len Goodman fails to raise a smile as he’s pictured out with wife Sue t.co/5DB9xHuLXl
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Len Goodman talked about his proposal and was asked if he “got down on one knee.” His reply was this:
At my age, no way! I made her go four stairs above me on the staircase so at least she was taller than me, does that count?
Goodman continued:
I’ve been going out with my lovely Sue for ages and I decided it was time to pop the question. She’s gorgeous and makes me very happy – though she likes to stay out of the limelight.
