Dancing With The Stars champion Nina Carberry is looking forward to spending time with her hubby again admitting she could count how many times they’ve had dinner together this year on one hand.
The retired jockey lifted the Glitterball Trophy in Sunday night’s epic grand final when she and her professional partner Pasquale La Rocca were crowned the champions of the 2022 season.
And after 12 weeks of blood, sweat and tears, and two months training prior to the live show, she said her goal is now to make up for lost time with her husband Ted, and daughters Rosie and Holly.
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Nina said: “It’s been full on from the last four months and it hasn’t stopped. I can name on my hand how many evening meals I’ve had with my husband, seriously. So I’m looking forward to spending time with him again.
“My girls and Ted have been amazing throughout this journey.
“It has been so hard on them and I haven’t seen them a whole lot. The babysitters have been great, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them.”
She went on to praise her husband, admitting: “Thank you to him, because I wouldn’t have done it without him.”
Nina went confessed she wouldn’t have even signed up to the show had it not been for Ted encouraging her to take on the tough new challenge.
She told Ryan Tubridy on his RTE Radio One show: “I have an agent Trevor, and he approached me and wanted me to do Dancing With The Stars.
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“I said it to my husband Ted and he said, ‘I think you should do it.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I can’t .
“But he said, ‘It will be a challenge for you and you need that in your life’, so I said OK.”
The 37-year-old added: “I said I’d do three nights [of training] a week so I could still see the girls and that. I started off with Pasquale and realised how bad I was and needed to give this full on.
“I didn’t want to have any regrets so I said I might as well give it all that I can and it kind of snowballed from there.
“I thought if I go on and feel like an eejit, I’ll have regrets about it. I wanted to give it my all and not have any regrets.”
Nina and Pasquale beat singer Erica Cody, Paralympic swimmer Ellen Keane and rugby ace Jordan Conroy in the finale on Sunday.
And the Meath native has responded after some social media users said that Jordan and his pro partner Salome Chachua were “robbed” in the result after he topped the leaderboard in the finale.
Speaking after her win Nina said: “All of the dancers were brilliant, it was probably the most competitive final on Dancing with the Stars of all time I’d imagine.
“Because not one of them danced badly and they didn’t deserve to lose.
“Unfortunately, there was only one winner and I was delighted to be part of the show.
“If Jordan… it is hard that there was only one winner but we all danced great.
“And I don’t think anyone will have any regrets.”
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