Dancing With The Stars' Ant Middleton details why prison was the best thing that happened to him

The SAS Australia star said he was 'excited' for the new adventure.

Tahlia Pritchard
·Senior Entertainment & Lifestyle Reporter
Updated ·4-min read

Dancing With The Stars' Ant Middleton has opened up about why he said yes to the show and why going to prison was one of the best things to ever happen to him in a new interview with Jess Rowe on her podcast The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show.

The SAS Australia said he knew he had to join Dancing With The Stars after getting the call because of the fear he felt when the opportunity was presented to him. "When I feel fear, I get excited," he said. The 43-year-old has put his body through gruelling challenges during his time in the military and while serving in Afghanistan, but he said doing Dancing With The Stars presented its own challenges, both learning a new skillset physically, as well as emotionally.

Given he's spent so much of his career having to "lock his emotions away", Ant said undertaking Dancing With The Stars unlocked a different headspace for him.

Ant Middleton Jess Rowe
Ant Middleton has opened up to Jess Rowe about why he decided to do Dancing With The Stars. Photo: Supplied

"One of the dances, I came out of the dance and I started to well up. I didn't know what the hell was going on," he told Jess. "It was quite an emotional dance and they said, 'Ant you need to get into a headspace where you've been your lowest' but on the performance day I went into a headspace that triggered something. And the dance just flowed. It wasn't until the end I felt this wave of emotion leave me. It did help me open up those emotions with a bit more ease, I couldn't believe it. It felt really strange, but it felt good."

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He said undertaking the process of being vulnerable and surrendering to dance was difficult.

"I've spent my whole career learning to lock my emotions away, in a place where the enemy can't see, or negative people can't see because they take advantage," he explained.

"The biggest challenge was unlocking this emotion and flicking the switch. I was like, I can't just switch it on and off, I've trained my whole life to lock it away. I couldn't allow those emotions to come in whilst I was on the job as it was a distraction. It goes against everything I've been taught and that is what scares me," he said.

Ant Middleton dancing with the stars
Ant Middleton said yes to Dancing With The Stars after realising the thought of doing the show scared him. Photo: Seven

Ant said going to prison was the best thing that could've happened to him, after he was sentenced to 14 months and served four months behind bars after being convicted of the unlawful wounding of a police officer and a common assault upon a second police officer in 2013.

"It was something I needed in my life. I never shy away from my mistakes when I mess up," he shared. "It was the ultimate accountability. I want to be the best at everything I want to do, or at least I want to try and be my best, and try and understand and get the best out of every situation positive or negative."

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Explaining the assault, he said:

"I can remember thinking to myself, I've been taught from the age of 16 to counter violence with extreme violence. So in order for me to stay alive [on the battlefield], I need to be more violent than you. But in society, there's zero tolerance. you lay a finger, you find yourself in deep water like I did."

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Ant went on to explain why he smiled at his wife after his sentence was handed down.

"That's the part, when I found myself behind bars, I remember when the hammer went down, and they sentenced me, I looked at my wife and I smiled, because I knew that's exactly what I needed to do and I knew the exact time I needed to do and I was excited for this new adventure," he said.

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