Dancing with the Stars 2019: Who is Craig Revel Horwood? - NEWS.com.au

There’s a new villain on Aussie TV, and viewers are less than impressed.

Dancing with the Stars judge Craig Revel Horwood copped a battering on social media last night for his “nasty” comments during the debut episode on Network Ten.

Sitting alongside fellow judges Sharna Burgess and Tristan MacManus, Horwood was booed by the studio audience several times as he delivered his stinging feedback, which included:

• Telling Miguel Maestre he “looked as though you’d just come out of a double hip replacement”.

• Telling Michelle Bridges she danced like she had “two wooden legs”.

• Telling Cassandra Thorburn, “It was all going well until … you started to dance and there, quite frankly, was the failure.”

• And saying to Jett Kenny that he was “stiff, stiff, stiff, and not, darling, in a good way”.

In addition to bagging him out on social media, many Dancing with the Stars viewers also wondered just who Horwood was and what credentials he had to be a judge on the show.

Here’s what you need to know.

Craig Revel Horwood, 54, was born in Ballarat but moved to the UK in 1989 and became a British citizen in 2011.

As a dancer he has performed in productions including West Side Story, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Miss Saigon.

He is also a choreographer and director whose credits include the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Paris Disneyland’s The Legend of the Lion King and Once Upon A Time: The Life of Hans Christian Andersen starring Tina Turner and Olivia Newton John.

Horwood is no stranger to reality TV and has been a judge on all 16 seasons of Strictly Come Dancing in the UK since 2004, and yes, he’s just as brutal on that show as he was on Dancing With The Stars last night.

“It can be quite amusing,” Horwood told the Daily Record about viewers’ reaction to his comments on TV.

“I was slapped one day on the face by some woman in Newbury. I couldn’t believe it. It was so cheeky.

“I was entitled to my opinion, I don’t go round slapping the general public when I disagree with them. But of course, I didn’t phone the police.

“I couldn’t exactly call them and say an 80-year-old woman had just slapped my face for my appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.”

Horwood was previously married to a woman called Jane, but the relationship ended when she cheated on him.

“I was young and stupid when I got married and I suppose I wanted to see if I could live a normal life, but she started going off with other guys, so it came to an end,” he told the Daily Record.

The choreographer now identifies as bisexual and is dating Jonathan Myring, a horticulturist who is 22 years his junior.

Dancing with the Stars continues next Monday night at 7.30pm on Network Ten

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