Dancing & Dating Shavaughn's Ready To Tango

The sexy single’s in a spin over her latest passion

- Amy Nelmes Bissett

If there’s one TV show that’s a serious hot-bed for sizzling new romances, it has to be Dancing with the Stars NZ. And it’s this that makes Shavaughn Ruakere burst into nervous laughter.

The Kiwi actress has just been announced as this year’s star contestant and Shavaughn confesses to Woman’s Day that rehearsals with her new dance partner are already flaming with passion.

“There’s a lot of time it’s just the two of you and you become very familiar with each other,” she says with a smile. “Like with ballroom, you are very close to each other and I suppose I get a bit giggly.

“And in the opening scene, I was wearing a dress with lots of tassels that were going down the neckline, and he just reached down and got them out!”

The former Shortland Street favourite says she isn’t ruling out romance on the show. It comes after her relationship with Rhythm & Vines festival organiser Toby Burrows – who she moved to Los Angeles with – recently ended.

And let’s not forget she is used to falling in love in the limelight, with a well-publicised three-year relationship with Clarke Gayford, who is now expecting his first child with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.