Sarah Jane Nader makes history as she’s paired with Hailey Bills on DWTS
Sarah Jane Nader has been paired with Hailey Bills on DWTS (Image: Disney)
Openly bisexual reality star Sarah Jane Nader will compete on Dancing With the Stars season 35 with pro dancer Hailey Bills, marking the show’s second-ever all-female partnership and only the third same-sex celebrity-pro duo in the franchise.
Nader confirmed the news in an Instagram post, writing: “Let’s Dance!!”
A newly released casting announcement image shows Nader alongside Bills. Dancing With the Stars season 35 premieres on Disney+ and ABC on 15 September.
Nader also spoke about what the pairing could mean for viewers. “I grew up watching this show, and I obviously never saw a same-sex pairing, and so it’s really cool to imagine young me watching me and feeling seen,” she told E! News. “And I hope that this happens from this experience.”
The previous same-sex celebrity-pro pairings include JoJo Siwa dancing with Jenna Johnson in 2021, followed by RuPaul’s Drag Race star Shangela partnering with Gleb Savchenko in 2022.
Nader’s reality TV journey
Nader is a model and stars on Hulu’s Love Thy Nader.
She came out during the first season after inviting a woman named Eliana home for Easter, with the show exploring her bisexuality on screen.
Reflecting on that storyline, Nader said in a Variety interview: “It was a huge moment for me because we’ve never talked about my sexuality.”
She added: “I’m very close to my extended family, and I love them, but it has always been sort of something that I felt like was just ignored and even danced around.
“When I had a girlfriend that I loved very much before Eliana, I was too scared to bring her home. I didn’t want to put her under the pressure of experiencing homophobia.”
Dancing With The Stars 2026 cast
Sarah Jane Nader isn’t the only LGBTQ+ celebrity on the line-up for the new season of Dancing With The Stars.
She is joined by pansexual figure skating Olympic gold medallist Amber Glenn, who is paired with pro Pasha Pashkov.
The full line-up also includes actors Tatyana Ali, Jenna Dewan, Harry Shum Jr and Julia Stiles, celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis, Taylor Hanson (of band, Hanson), reality television stars Maura Higgins, Conner Leavitt, Ciara Miller and Tyler Cameron, baseball player Jackson Olson, Jimmy Kimmel Live! sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, and comedian Connor Wood.
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