Dancing with the Stars honored the late Len Goodman during the October 24 episode. Pro dancers from past seasons returned to the ballroom and joined current pros to pay tribute to the ballroom legend with judge Derek Hough and co-host Julianne Hough. The gorgeous and unforgettable dance tribute was set to “Moon River” by Henry Mancini and was choreographed by pros Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson.
Len’s wife, Sue Barrett, was in the audience during Most Memorable Year Night to watch the show’s tribute to her late husband. Sue was in tears watching how the pro dancers honored Len.
Many of the pro dancers were brought to tears as well as they looked over at Len’s judges’ chair at the end of the performance. “All good things have to come to an end,” Len’s voiceover said. Carrie Ann Inaba could be seen getting up to comfort a crying Bruno Tonioli.
On April 24, 2023, Dancing with the Stars fans around the world were crushed to learn that Len had died in hospice in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. He passed away after battling cancer on April 22, just days shy of his 79th birthday. “A much-loved husband, father, and grandfather who will be sorely missed by family, friends, and all who knew him,” read a statement provided by his manager. The 78-year-old Len was surrounded by his family when he died. Months earlier, Len had announced his retirement from DWTS.
Len is survived by his son and wife of more than a decade. However, Sue wasn’t the first woman to walk down the aisle with Len. Forty years before Len and Sue tied the knot in 2012, he said “I do” to his first wife, Cherry Kingston. Learn more about his partners over the years.
Sue Barrett
Len met his future second wife at a golf club in 2002, per The Sun. Like Len, Sue had a passion for dance. She is a dance instructor who runs a ballroom dancing school out of their home in Kent. However, she didn’t share Len’s taste for fame. “She likes to stay out of the limelight,” Len would later say about his partner, per The Daily Mail.
“She’s gorgeous and makes me very happy,” he would say of his partner. He would also joke that she was lucky to fall in love with him because he’s so good in bed. “I don’t snore. I don’t take the duvet. I just lay there and go straight off to sleep. That’s all you want out of a bloke,” he joked.
After 10 years together, Len and Sue tied the knot in a secret ceremony in December 2012. “I’ve had a marvelous day, and now my gorgeous Sue is the new Mrs. Goodman,” he said afterward, according to The Daily Mail. “Did I pickle my walnuts? Of course, I did! I wanted it to be a low-key affair, so we didn’t tell anyone except my 96-year-old mum as I didn’t want her having a heart attack with the surprise.”
“I knew I’d found the woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, so why not get married?” he added. “I’ve said before I’m selfish, and that doesn’t equate well for marriage, but My Wonderful Sue got that out of me. I’ve become totally unselfish, and I think that’s because it’s true love.”
When asked if he got down on one knee to propose, he said, “At my age, no way! I made her go four stairs above me on the staircase, so at least she was taller than me, does that count? We’ve had a marvelous day, with marvelous food surrounded by all my dearest friends – and it didn’t go on for too long, so it didn’t get boring!”
Len and Sue didn’t have any children during their decades-long relationship. He had a son from a relationship between his marriages.
Cherry Kingston
In 1972, Len, age 25, married his first wife, Cherry Kingston, after two years of dating. She was his dancing partner and five years younger than him. Len would give up dancing after winning the British Championships in Blackpool in his late 20s. He also won Dual of the Giants, British Rising Stars, The British Exhibition Championships four times, and the World Exhibition Championships in the 1970s.
“I’ve been the luckiest man in the world,” the Strictly Come Dancing alum told the Daily Mail in 2008. “I became British Dance Champion [in his late 20s] only because the bloke who should have won it had broken his leg skiing, otherwise, I’d have been second.”
But, when he retired, their marriage began to crumble. “The dancing was the glue that really held us together. Once that finished, she looked at me and thought, ‘What am I doing with him?'” Len told the Daily Mail.
When visiting Monte Carlo, Len and Cherry met a wealthy French man named “Michael” in a casino, per The Sun. She and “Michael” fell in love and soon asked Len for a divorce. “I can’t blame her. He was a multi-millionaire. That helped, I guess. It wasn’t a tragedy, although it was a shock because I always thought I’d be the one who would shove off,” he told the Daily Mail.
“Lesley”
Love soon came calling for Len. While separated from Cherry – they’d finalize the divorce in 1987 – he met a woman named Lesley. Described as the ex-wife of “a bloke called Wilf Pine who had managed Black Sabbath,” Len and “Lesley” would maintain a relationship until the early 1980s.
“I was going out with a girl who got pregnant and because of that, my wonderful son came along when I was almost 40. He’s a marvelous boy. Children give life a reason to be – they make life,” Len told the Daily Mail.