Ice Skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are ready to judge the next group of celebrities hoping to be crowned the next Dancing On Ice champion.

Torvill and Dean rose to fame as Olympic gold medal winning ice skaters in the eighties, and despite retiring in 1996, the stars came back as part of the Dancing On Ice panel in 2013.

Since then, they have put a number of celebrities through their paces, but have also left their celebrity contestants in awe, with 2022 participant Ria Hebden describing Christopher Dean as being as magical as Father Christmas in a recent interview.

Both on the ice and off the ice, Torvill and Dean have shown their close bond, but viewers may not know that the couple previously had a brief romance and that Torvill has a sweet nickname for Dean.

Brief romance

Torvill and Dean have revealed that while they are not a couple in real life, they did have a brief romance as teenagers.

Although speculation about their relationship off the ice has grown for many years, the skating duo addressed any rumours on Piers Morgans Life Stories in 2013.

They revealed that they once had "dabbled" in a brief romance when Dean was 16 and Torvill was 17, but decided against it, fearing how it would affect their ice skating careers.

Torvill later confirmed that their brief romance was actually a kiss on the back of a bus, telling Radio Times: "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."

Dean also added: "We didn’t talk about it much after. The skating was everything and having a relationship just didn’t occur to us."

Close bond with 'the blonde prince'

It is impossible to imagine Torvill without Dean, and it was meant to be as soon as Jayne Torvill spotted Christopher Dean on the ice in 1971.

She has revealed that Dean stood out on the day she saw him, and admitted that his skill on the ice, fast speed and good looks led to her nicknaming him "the blonde prince."

Despite not being a couple off the ice, Christopher Dean has also since admitted that he loves Jayne, but as a close friend.

In an interview with Northern Life magazine, he said: "We’re really close and the best of friends, we’ve grown up together."

In an interview with the Radio Times, he also added: "There is still a romance, though… I love Jayne. But in a passionate friend way."

Marriages

While the ice skating legends might be one of sporting's most famous professional couples, off the ice, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are married to different people.

Jayne has been married to her husband Phil Christensen since 1990, and the couple have recently celebrated their pearl wedding anniversary together.

Unlike Jayne, Phil is not involved in the world of sport and instead works as a sound engineer.

The couple also have two adopted children together, called Kieran and Jessica.

Christopher Dean however is in a relationship with someone from the world of ice skating, British Ice Dancer Karen Barber, who he has been with since 2011.

He has also been married twice before – first to French-Canadian ice skater and World Champion Isabelle Duchesnay from 1991 to 1993, and then to American figure skater Jill Trenary from 1994 to 2010.

Christopher has two children with Jill called Jack and Sam, and the family resided in Colorado Springs, USA before the couple divorced.

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