Ellen Keane in Dancing with the Stars raises the cover of her relationship with her handsome boyfriend Gavin Maguire

Dancing with the Stars contestant Ellen Keane has raised a lid on her relationship with her boyfriend.

The Paralympic gold medalist and swimmer socialize with international table tennis player and coach Gavin Maguire, and the couple’s paths intersect on social media at first.

The beloved couple met before the lock struck in 2020, and a romance quickly arose between the couple, who now live together in Dublin’s East Wall.

“Gavin’s niece is my fan and she sent me a message on Twitter asking if I could meet her niece. I looked at her profile wondering if she was weird or athletic,” Ellen told Life magazine.

– We met in January before the pandemic and moved into his family home in April before moving here.

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Ellen added that Gavin, who has a similar background in sports, helped strengthen their relationship because she understands how much time and commitment she has to give to bathing.

It didn’t take long for the couple to take a new step in their relationship and get a sweet sausage dog named Denny.

He continued: “I lived in a house in Finglas with two men and a girl, but they were not athletes, and I was in trouble. When I moved in with him, he understood my lifestyle – it’s so important because sports have to be a priority. Then, a few months later, I got Denny. It’s been quite a year. “

Ellen was born with an undeveloped left arm and admitted that before she found love with Gavin, it made her self-aware about socializing.

“When I was single and going on a dating app, there was always the same dilemma of whether to add a photo of my arm. Don’t I? Do something about it? After all, you want people to get to know you first,” he said.

“You have to come out of the disabled closet to face your disability. I think I just added full body photos of my arm. If they liked my face, they saw my hand. Some people said, ‘Oh you.’ It’s such an inspiration.” I think, “Why? For existence?”

Ellen is the first disabled contestant to get to the Dancing with the Stars dance floor when the Fifth Series begins at RTE One next weekend.

The Dubliner wants to use the presentation as a platform to start important debates about what it’s like to live with a disabled person in Ireland.

“I’m the first person with a disability to be on the program, so I want to talk about these things. I had to figure out how I adapt to society, and it’s still a struggle for me and a lot of people,” Ellen told the release.

“That’s why I decide to use my platform. All the people who struggle with self-identity – I want to make a presentation because it’s so important to represent my community.

“People talk to me and I’m like, ‘Don’t climb around it, you can say I don’t have hands.’ I can tell you sometimes people talk about it, but I want them to know they can say it. I’m trying to get people to calm down.”