Dancing On Ice Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean romance star ‘so sad’ after announcement

The Olympic gold medalists have confirmed that they will soon retire from skating

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean return to screens tonight for another edition of Dancing On Ice. The figure skating legend is known for their roles as judges on the hit ITV show.

The “greatest show on ice” returned for its 16th series last weekend as a new batch of celebrities donned their skates for the challenge. The Olympic gold medal winners were joined by fellow judges Oti Mabuse and Ashley Banjo as they ranked the performances of six of the 12 celebrities in the line-up this season.

Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern return as hosts to welcome the celebrity performances. Former This Morning host Holly said she was “so sad” after Torvill and Dean’s announcement last week when they confirmed their intentions to retire after the current tour.

Dean said: “We’ve been skating together for 50 years. This is our last time, so when we finish the tour, the skates will be hung up.” However. they confirmed that the partnership will continue off the ice and they will remain as judges on the show.

The skating partnership announced their retirement from the sport in a joint statement last year. Ahead of their current tour, which comes to Liverpool on May 8-9, the skaters said: “While we will continue to work together off the ice, this will be the last time we will skate together after our 50-year partnership .But not without celebrating one last time with all our incredible fans across the UK who have supported us constantly over the years.

“We promise to put on a great live show – and we really hope to see you there.” The pair also confirmed they have no plans to leave Dancing On Ice, adding: “Our ‘retirement’ in 2025, which will follow our UK tour, will be purely from ice skating.

“As we said in Sarajevo earlier this week, we will continue to work together off the ice. We have no plans to step down from Dancing On Ice and hope the series continues for years to come.”

Torvill and Dean announced their retirement in Sarajevo, the city where they shot to stardom when they won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics with a legendary ‘Bolero’ performance. Torvill and Dean have been in the spotlight ever since, and their incredible chemistry on the ice has previously fueled speculation that they were enjoying a romantic relationship.

However, the two are only friends and each has their own family. Jayne has been married to Phil Christensen since 1990 and Christopher has been in a relationship with Karen Barber since 2011. In an interview with Radio Times, Jayne was hysterical when she revealed a comment from Christopher that fueled the romance rumours.

The 67-year-old said: “A reporter said: ‘So Chris, when are you getting married?’ and he said, “Not yet!” And that was it – there were reports that we were getting married, I was like, ‘Oh no, why did you say that?’

Jayne also revealed in an interview with the Radio Times that the two kissed when they were teenagers. She said: “We were sitting at the back of the bus going to a league game and it just happened. It was a one-off. We never talked about it afterwards. We laugh about it now,” she said.

Chris added: “We were 14 years old and teenagers in the most naive sense.” Christopher said the two decided to put their careers ahead of any potential romance.

The 66-year-old said: “We came close but at some point realized we didn’t want to create a relationship off the ice in the form of a romantic relationship. We had seen many partnerships fail. The skating was everything. and having a relationship just didn’t occur to us.”

Although their partnership on the ice may be coming to an end, Torvill and Dean are excited about what the future holds. The two love their roles on Dancing On Ice and can’t wait to see which celebrity wins the competition this year.

Michaela Strachan was the featured performer from week one as she is currently at the top of the leaderboard. There was also an impressive performance from Coronation Street’s Sam Aston, who currently sits in second place on 27 points.

On Sunday, the other six celebrities will take to the ice for the first time. Stars such as Charlie Brooks and Sir Steve Redgrave will be among the celebrities taking to the ice for tonight’s show, which kicks off at 6.30pm on ITV