Ant Middleton vowed he would never get married again. Then he met Emilie.

SAS Australia's Ant Middleton has swapped his military boots for dancing shoes, competing in this year's season of Dancing with the Stars Australia.

The latest season of the competition show was filmed earlier this year in Sydney — however, Middleton, his wife and children reside in Dubai, which meant he was away from his family for some time.

It's something his wife of 18 years, Emilie, has gotten used to.

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Middleton met Emilie in June 2004 at a bar in Essex where she was working. Emilie, who was 24 at the time, described their meeting as "love at first sight."

"He was so cheeky and funny, as well as good-looking and muscular," she told The Sun in 2019. 

At the time, Middleton was on a break from his military career, having served in the army since age 16 with deployments to Northern Ireland and Macedonia. But returned soon after, joining the Royal Marines. 

Despite being worried about him getting injured or killed, Emilie supported his decision.

"I started seeing Emilie in 2004, just before I began training to be a Royal Marine Commando. I’d vowed I’d never get married again," Middleton told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2021.

The couple tied the knot in Antigua in May 2006 and welcomed their first child, daughter Shyla, in 2007, followed by son Gabriel in 2009.

Image: Instagram/@antmiddleton

Emilie kept things going on the home front while Ant served tours in war zones like Afghanistan. 

"I was quite selfish and put my career first for a long time, but I wanted to spend more time at home," Middleton later admitted. 

"I used not to write home much. It's easier just to focus on what you're doing when you're out there."

Two more children, Priseis and Bligh, were born in 2015 and 2016 respectively. 

When Middleton's TV career took off in 2015 with SAS: Who Dares Wins, Emilie struggled to adjust to their new reality.

"Almost overnight we went from an existence where nobody knew anything about my husband and how he was spending his time, to realising that millions of people thought they knew everything about him," she wrote in his book Zero Negativity.

Fame went to her husband's head for some time, Emilie admitted, saying: "He was with us but at the same time he wasn't really there. It went to his head and stuff teetered a bit for us." 

Image: Instagram/@antmiddleton

The couple faced controversy in 2021 when Middleton was dropped by UK's Channel 4 over his "personal conduct" and comments made about Black Lives Matter protesters. 

Before Emilie, Ant was married to his first wife, Hayley. They met in Portsmouth and got married after a year of dating. The couple had a son, Oakley, in 2001. 

They eventually separated when Oakley was just three months old.

Feature image: Instagram/@antmiddleton

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