The greatest showmance! As Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean retire, how their intense bond sparked years of romance rumours - despite both marrying other people

Daily Mail​

21 hours ago

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have performed for the last time together after retiring from ice skating, four decades on from their gold win at the 1984 Winter Olympics.
They've long impressed audiences with their sizzling chemistry and tactile performances before winning a new legion of fans as the faces of ITV 's Dancing On Ice.
But throughout their impressive career, there has been long-standing speculation as to the nature of their relationship.
Both the British skaters are in committed relationships; Jayne, 67, has been wed to Phil Christiansen since 1990, and Christopher, 66, was married twice before beginning a relationship with Dancing On Ice co-star Karen Barber in 2011.
Yet fans have often believed their is more to the bond - particularly after the pair shared a smooch during their trip to Sarajevo in 2024, to commemorate 40 years since winning gold at the 1984 games held in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital.
The duo appeared to get caught up in the Valentine's Day spirit as they kissed while performing the sultry Bolero routine which snagged them the medals four decades ago.
They've also both admitted in the past that they shared a one-time kiss as teenagers - and considered being together when they were younger - but ultimately decided to put their careers first.
On Saturday, the pair performed for the final time together in their hometown of Nottingham after embarking on the UK leg of their farewell tour, Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance, in April.
With choreography filled with barely-there pecks and longing looks, it's perhaps unsurprising that fans have long speculated that more than just friendship resides in their partnership.
Plus the skaters are evidently used to being in each other's arms, often squaring up close to one another and cuddling up for photos.
Yet Christopher and Jayne have only 'crossed the line' in their relationship once, when they were younger, according to the pair themselves, and never slept together.
Christopher told the High Performance podcast in 2024: 'When we were younger, we were sort of, for a minute [crossed a line], but it didn't last very long.
' I think we just eventually got into that place where we knew that we were the best of friends. I think that mutual friendship has got us to this point now, 50 years later.'
Jayne added: 'Quite often we get asked, "What's the secret of your friendship, relationship?"... we never got married,' before Christopher insisted: 'Don't sleep with each other.'
However, Christopher has previously explained that their 'unique' relationship is 'not like brother and sister' nor like 'husband and wife'.
'We still have a great spark and chemistry,' Jayne added in the interview with the Mirror. 'And we enjoy each other's company but we have other partners as well.'
Fans have often believed their is more to the pair's bond - particularly after the pair shared a smooch during their trip to Sarajevo in 2024 (pictured), to commemorate 40 years since winning gold at the 1984 games held in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital
The pair have often teased a kiss as part of their routine choreography on the ice. Pictured performing when they were younger
The pair became international stars after receiving 12 perfect sixes while skating to Maurice Ravel's Boléro at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Bosnia and Herzegovina, prompting a standing ovation.
It was watched on television by 24 million people in the UK and one month later they received an even better score at the World Championships.
But suspicions about their relationship were roused as soon as they snagged the gold medal - and despite both being in respective relationships, their affectionate performances on the ice have continued to spark romance rumours.
One of Christopher's exes even previously hit out that their marriage had a third person in it.
His first wife, Isabelle Duchesnay, was famously jealous of Jayne and referred to her as the 'other woman' in their marriage.
'I think that's where Princess Diana got her remark about three people in her marriage from!' Christopher previously joked.
'The trouble was Isabelle didn't want me to go on skating.' Jayne continued. 'That was a bit selfish of her.'
Speaking to the Mirror, Christopher also revealed that while the sporting pair seriously considered trying to have a relationship together when they were younger, they ultimately decided to put their careers first.
'We got close but at some point realised that we weren't going to make a relationship off the ice in terms of a romantic one,' he said.
'We had seen a lot of partnerships fail. The skating was everything and having a relationship just didn't occur to us.'
The pair have over the years also insisted that beyond everything, they are great friends.
In 2014, Christopher told The Sun newspaper: 'I don't think we've ever, ever had a falling out. Not a real one.'
But in an interview with Radio Times, Jayne revealed that one reporter asked Christopher after their historic win when he was planning on getting married.
'And he said, "Not yet!",' she explained. 'And that was it – there were reports that we were going to get married. I thought, "Oh no! Why did you say that?".'
She also told the outlet that the couple did share a kiss - once, when they were teenagers and before the start of their partnership.
'We were in the back of the bus going to a league match, and it just happened. It was a one-off. We never talked about it afterwards. We laugh about it now,' she explained.
'Chris comes out with things without filtering them, and on Piers Morgan's Life Stories he said, "We dabbled." So that's what it is now – Dabblegate. It was a kiss!'
After the 12 perfect sixes that won gold in Sarajevo they went professional, then a decade later decided to go amateur again and compete in the Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
But they only won bronze and there was a national outcry against the judges' decision.
'It was a case of: can we still do it?' Christopher told the Daily Mail. 'We were older and physically we were fitter because of performing professionally,' Jayne added.
'There was a problem with other skaters coming up and reaching their peak, and it was like: 'Why are they coming back?' The others looked at us oddly.'
'The judges had their own champions,' Christopher continued. 'The USSR had just split into all these smaller countries.
'On the panel of nine, five would be from those countries and guess who they wanted to vote for? The atmosphere with the judges wasn't great. The writing was on the wall before we went out there.'
The duo both started skating when they were children - Jayne was eight and Christopher was ten.
Jayne has said that she recalls seeing her future partner whizzing across the ice in 1971 - when she was 14 - and nicknaming him the 'Blond Prince'.
However they officially met at a Nottingham ice-rink when Christopher was still a 16-year-old police cadet and Jayne was an insurance clerk.
Both were skating solo for some time, but by 1975, coach Janet Sawbridge decided to try and see what their chemistry could be like together.
To this day, their lasting closeness with one another has proven to be a hit with the public. Their infamous non-romance has even been recreated for the screen in a passionate 2018 biopic.
'The whole world wants to know if we were in love,' Jayne told the Daily Mail in 2008. However, the duo are both in committed long-term relationships.
Jayne has been wed to Phil Christiansen since 1990, and Christopher was married to American skater Jill Trenary from 1994 to 2010. He has been in a relationship with ice dancer Karen Barber since 2011.
Following the end of their competitive career, Torvill and Dean started coaching and choreographing and regularly toured, before becoming the faces of ITV's reality show Dancing on Ice in 2006.
The show went on hiatus in 2014 and when it was revived in 2018 they returned as head judges before announcing their retirement from skating together in 2024, and their farewell tour.
Following the end of their competitive career, Torvill and Dean started coaching and choreographing and regularly toured, before becoming the faces of ITV's reality show Dancing on Ice in 2006. Pictured on Dancing on Ice in 2014
They performed their tour, Torvill and Dean: Our Last Dance, from April 12 to May 11, 2025 with dates in London, Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow.
'I think there comes a time when you know,' said Christopher before the tour. 'We're not spring chickens anymore but we're still able to do it to a certain degree that we feel good about it but that will go.
'So, I think this is the right time for us to be able to do that and go and skate and do some of the old routines, be very nostalgic, but then do some new fun, upbeat (dances) with friends of ours from the skating world and from Dancing On Ice.'
Following their final performance together, Christopher said: 'The performance went well and the audience were amazing and so, for us, to be able to bow out on a high like that was wonderful.'
Asked if it had been emotional, he said: 'These last four performances here in Nottingham, the early ones were quite emotional and I think I sort of got that out of me, and tonight, it was a high.
'We enjoyed it so much. The skating was good from our point of view, but the audience were phenomenal. They were the best audience ever.'
Jayne, meanwhile, said: 'I think we'll miss it. When you've done all these shows like this, and you're suddenly home, not doing anything, you miss that adrenaline rush and you miss the excitement of being on the ice, whether it's a practice session or a performance.'
The sportswoman promised they would be working on other projects but said they will not be skating on the ice together.