William Levy Puts On His Dancing Shoes

by UInterviewMarch 19, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

Hunky Latin soap star William Levy is about to start making a name for himself, instead of being known as Jennifer Lopez‘s former not-quite boyfriend. Levy, 31, will debut on Monday night’s Season 14 two-hour premiere of Dancing with the Stars.

For his part, Levy has been practicing enough with DWTS partner Cheryl Burke to suffer a few aches and pains. “I understand you girls now when you go to a party and say, ‘I need to sit down and take off my heels!'” Levy told Extra. “The thing is, I’m Latin … I’ve always played sports … but I’ve never danced before in my life like this,” he revealed.

Levy, who has been called the Cuban Brad Pitt, was in the news last year when a woman accused him of sexual battery and claimed that she was only 17 years old when she had intimate relations with Levy. He maintained that she had told him she was 19 and that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing. The case was settled privately last summer.

Many also suspected Levy of having a fling with Lopez right around the time she split from husband Marc Anthony, since the two had appeared so comfortable together in her music video, “I’m Into You.” Levy denied that anything had ever happened between them, declaring that their relationship was “strictly professional,” he told ET. “I don’t like breaking up families.”

Levy will go toe-to-toe with other DWTS competitors Jaleel White, Gavin DeGraw, Jack Wagner and Melissa Gilbert, to name a few, starting Monday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.