Ben Cousins has revealed that his time filming Dancing With The Stars has rekindled his passion for the sport.
The AFL legend, 45, says he missed the thrill of the competition and couldn’t get enough.
“I love the lifestyle of a professional athlete and I missed it,” he tells the Herald Sun.
“I thought I was going to have the experience for six to eight or ten weeks and just hang on for dear life and wait for the days to end. But it was the complete opposite.”
Ben went on to say that he didn’t want the experience to end.
“I remember there was a week left until the show was over and I was starting to get sad, I didn’t want to go home,” she said.
‘For me, looking back on that, it still shocks me that that could have been the case. I fell in love, it was incredible.’
Ben has been rebuilding his life in recent years after a fall from grace.
Ben Cousins has revealed that his time filming Dancing With The Stars rekindled his passion for the sport. The 45-year-old AFL legend says he missed the thrill of the competition and couldn’t get enough of it. In the photo he appears with his dance partner Siobhan Power
The footballer says he was contacted several times by Channel Seven’s SAS Australia, known for hiring controversial public figures.
Ben has so far refused, however he did agree to take part in Dancing With The Stars this year, explaining that focusing on a new challenge will help him rebuild his life.
The athlete tells the Herald of the Sun who actually agreed to participate in the dance competition before, in 2008, before changing his mind.
“I’m in a pretty good place at the moment and I’m in a position to take on some new challenges and this has come and probably for the first time in quite a while I’m in a position to try it.” he said.
“I love the lifestyle of a professional athlete and I miss it,” he tells the Herald Sun
‘This worked for my mental situation and for my desire to throw myself into doing something.’
When it comes to rebuilding his life, Ben says there is “no quick fix” and he is willing to pay off his debts.
“I certainly don’t forget the hard work and commitment it took to get back to where I am,” he said.
“It’s a long-term game… It’s not about doing something and it suddenly changes overnight.”
Ben won the Brownlow Medal in 2005 and captained the West Coast Eagles from 2001 to 2005, collecting the club’s best and fairest awards in four of those seasons.
He played 238 games and scored 205 goals for the West Coast Eagles, winning the club’s premiership in 2006.
“I thought I was going to have the experience for six to eight or ten weeks and just hang on for dear life and wait for the days to end. But it was the complete opposite,” he added. Photographed in 2005
His dramatic fall from grace was well documented beginning in 2007, when he publicly battled a drug addiction and confronted his failed relationship with Maylea Tinecheff.
He was later sacked and given a one-year suspension from the AFL for repeated offences.
In 2021, Susan Backshell, who has acted as a mentor to Cousins since his last stint in prison, told Daily Mail Australia that he remains solely focused on his children.
Sitting in a cold, cramped cell for the sixth time in 13 years, Cousins decided enough was enough after seven months behind bars in 2020.
He told her he wanted to make up for his mistake and clean up his life, and Backshell gave him an ultimatum: “Give it all or forget it completely.”
Since Cousins was released from custody in December 2020, Backshell said he has never questioned his commitment to sobriety and the betterment of his community.
Last year, his cousins announced that he would participate in several speeches on their Such Is Life tour, which began in July.
The tour, which promised to tell untold stories from his football career, marked something of a catharsis for the controversial Brownlow Medallist.
“I remember there was a week left until the show was over and I was starting to get sad, I didn’t want to go home,” she said.