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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Entertainment
Katie Gallagher

Dancing With The Stars’ Matthew MacNabb on single life after Love Island and hospital horror before show

Dancing With The Stars’ Matthew MacNabb has revealed he finds it hard to date since his stint on Love Island.

The Co Down reality TV star first shot to fame on the ITV matchmaking show last summer before making his dancing debut on RTE on Sunday night.

The 26-year-old revealed he is still on the lookout for love, but revealed he has to have to be more careful with his selection since his new found stardom.

He said: “Dating life, for me, is a weird mix of whatever happens happens.

“I go with the flow to see how things happen.

“It is a little bit tougher to date girls online now because I used to just go on Hinge before Love Island.

The Downpatrick man on Aftersun (Matthew MacNabb/Instagram)

“Now I obviously can’t do that and you have to be more careful on Instagram DMs because you don’t know who you are talking to. Anyone could be trying to trick you.”

The marketing consultant from Downpatrick and his professional dance partner Laura Nolan failed to impress the judges with their Viennese Waltz to Dangerously by Charlie Puth on Sunday night - where they found themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard with just 13 points.

But after a rush to hospital, and both Matt and Laura battling Covid in the run up to the show, he feels the judges were too ‘harsh’ with their critique.

Speaking after the show on Sunday, Matt remained confident in his potential and said: “I felt like I did pretty good out there, so I thought it was a bit harsh.”

He went on to explain a series of unfortunate events that occurred running up to the show - including a hospital dash in the US before Christmas with an infection that left him ‘barely able to walk’.

“At one point I was told I was to have emergency surgery. It’s very weird going from extremely physically capable to extremely physically limited,” Matthew explained at the time.

“Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as initially thought and I’m recovering really well.”

Downpatrick man Matthew MacNabb (RTÉ)

Following more delays and hiccups, due to Covid, the pair ended up with just days to get their routine together.

Dubliner Laura said: “It was one thing after another.

“We only got back training on Wednesday before the show.

“We have a different dance with a completely different energy next week and we are hoping we can pull a great performance out of the bag now that we have a full week of training ahead of us.

She added: “Of course, we don’t want to be at the bottom, but from the bottom, the only way is up."

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