{"id":251433,"date":"2026-01-18T17:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251433\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:41:17","slug":"as-dan-walker-is-spotted-arm-in-arm-with-young-golf-pro-katie-hind-reveals-all-on-the-happily-married-christian-shes-known-since-they-were-teenagers-and-his-exciting-london-life-far-from-devot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251433\/","title":{"rendered":"As Dan Walker is spotted ‘arm in arm’ with young golf pro, KATIE HIND reveals all on the ‘happily married Christian’ she’s known since they were teenagers and his ‘exciting’ London life far from devoted wife Sarah"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Dan Walker<\/a> arrived on the red carpet for the star-studded Cirque du Soleil premiere last week, fellow guests did a double-take.<\/p>\n

Arm-in-arm with the former BBC<\/a> star and meeting his gaze as they strolled into the Royal Albert Hall was sports presenter and pro golfer Iona Stephen, looking gorgeous in a stunning red dress.<\/p>\n

To all the world they looked like an amorous couple, save for the crucial fact that Walker, 48, has been happily married for the past 25 years to someone else \u2013 his devoted wife Sarah.<\/p>\n

But posing up a storm on the red carpet together, the pair proved they have struck up a genuinely lovely friendship.<\/p>\n

How things have changed for the handsome Channel 5<\/a> News host, for I knew him at school.<\/p>\n

As a teenager at Hazelwick Comprehensive in Crawley, West Sussex, I remember Dan being a bit of a \u2018spod\u2019, as we put it then.<\/p>\n

A couple of years my senior, he was a quiet, skinny student who wore a khaki-coloured cagoule and was very serious about two things: football and the Church. None of this exactly endeared him to the cool crowd. And back then, in the Nineties, girls were most definitely not interested in him.<\/p>\n

To be fair to Dan, he was likely more interested in furthering his career ambitions as a journalist \u2013 and, at that, he was a huge success.<\/p>\n

\"Dan <\/p>\n

Dan Walker strolled into the Royal Albert Hall last week with sports presenter and pro golfer Iona Stephen, looking gorgeous in a stunning red dress<\/p>\n

\"Dan <\/p>\n

Dan with his wife, Sarah, pictured last month at Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay’s wedding in Bath<\/p>\n

He went on, of course, to work as one of the anchors of BBC Breakfast, commuting from his family home in Sheffield for a 5am start in Salford for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Today, he has a pied-a-terre in London to allow him to reach the Channel 5 studios more easily, and to host his weekday breakfast show on Classic FM.<\/p>\n

And as his star has risen, so has the attention he has garnered from the ladies \u2013 in particular, from pretty blonde colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dan is so happily married,\u2019 says an associate of his. \u2018His priority is his wife, children and his beautiful dog, but because of work he has to spend the week away from them and misses them greatly.<\/p>\n

\u2018He fills his time up by going to nice events. He is keen to get out rather than sit in getting lonely \u2013 nobody wants that for him. But more than that, he sees himself as a bit of a mentor to his co-stars.\u00a0He wants to help their careers.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iona, 35, has become something of a favourite among viewers of Sky Sports and the BBC alike after she turned to hosting when a wrist injury forced her to ditch her promising golf career.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the University of St Andrews \u2013 the Fife town where she grew up and which boasts the famous Old Course, the oldest golf course in the world \u2013 she counts Amanda Balionis, the American CBS sports presenter and star of Netflix series Full Swing, as one of her close friends. And, it seems, Dan Walker.<\/p>\n

She is said to have played at various charity golf days with the presenter, and was a guest at the Strictly studios in November thanks to Dan\u2019s friendship with his former partner from the BBC dance show, Nadiya Bychkova.<\/p>\n

Dan\u2019s relationship with the Ukrainian beauty has been described to me as a \u2018lovely, lovely friendship\u2019, and she was also at the Royal Albert Hall last week \u2013 although her plus one was her nine-year-old daughter, Mila.<\/p>\n

\"Dan <\/p>\n

Dan is said to \u2018adore\u2019 former Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton, his co-host on Channel 5\u2019s Yorkshire Great And Small<\/p>\n

Nadiya and Dan are thrilled they stayed friends after appearing on the show in 2021 \u2013 unlike other couples from the past few years, including the infamous pairing of Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One friend says: \u2018They are a real Strictly success story. Nadiya became single and Dan is a kind man with strong Christian values. They are the opposite of the Strictly curse.\u2019<\/p>\n

So much so, in fact, that they celebrated Nadiya\u2019s birthday at The Ritz hotel in 2024 where they indulged in a caviar tasting, snapping a picture of themselves in the famous hotel\u2019s kitchen.<\/p>\n

They were not alone that night, but the picture Dan posted on social media featured just the two of them.<\/p>\n

And he has been supportive of her solo projects, which he has promoted on Instagram. He even gave Nadiya a platform to advertise her Strictly Christmas Special dance partner Billy Monger, and helped her land lucrative brand deals in a bid to supplement her Strictly income.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dan has certainly jumped to become Nadiya\u2019s knight in shining armour,\u2019 says an associate of his. Dan is also said to \u2018adore\u2019 former Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton, his co-host on Channel 5\u2019s Yorkshire Great And Small. The pair explore the county, hiking and discovering its hidden gems.<\/p>\n

Dan is said to consider mother-of-three Helen, who is rumoured to be dating her Morning Live co-star Gethin Jones, \u2018an absolute pro\u2019.<\/p>\n

He has shared numerous shots of their behind-the-scenes antics on the programme and in one video describes her as his \u2018work bestie\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dan certainly gets to work with some beauties,\u2019 says a source, who points out that \u2018he spent years working with a load of men on Football Focus\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dan\u2019s wife Sarah Walker, who he met while they were both students at the University of Sheffield, perhaps got the best ticket in town: an invitation to Olympic gold medallist Adam Peaty\u2019s wedding to Gordon Ramsay\u2019s daughter Holly last month.<\/p>\n

Dan and the professional swimmer met after they both appeared as contestants on Strictly in the same year, and Sarah was pictured at her husband\u2019s side as they left the historic Bath Abbey.<\/p>\n

And despite Dan\u2019s numerous friendships with his co-stars, those who know him point out his home is where his heart is.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dan might get a bit excitable to be at all of these events,\u2019 says one pal. \u2018But actually he also loves being at home. Underneath it all he\u2019s still a little bit boring.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dan Walker arrived on the red carpet for the star-studded Cirque du Soleil premiere last week, fellow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,539,93,61,60,1489],"class_list":["post-251433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}