17-07-2025
Jayne Torvill reveals secret behind her decades-long friendship with skating partner Christopher Dean after pair took to the ice together for final time
Jayne Torvill has revealed the secret behind her decades-long friendship with skating partner Christopher Dean.
The Dancing on Ice duo took their place in British sporting history when they won gold at the 1984 Winter Games ice skating to Ravel's Bolero at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo.
But Jayne, 67, and Chris, 66, hung up their skates for the last time on Saturday after a final performance of Bolero.
Both are in committed relationships; Jayne has been wed to Phil Christiansen since 1990, and Christopher was married twice before beginning a relationship with Dancing On Ice co-star Karen Barber in 2011 - but the skating partners have always retained a close bond.
And now Jayne has revealed that their friendship has lasted 50 years because they never married and stayed platonic.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, Jayne said when asked if they knew their partnership was special after dancing together for the first time: 'It was all just very new for both of us.
'As we skated together a few more times, I think we both realised that we both had a passion for it, and we both wanted to get better. Keep doing it, practice, get better. And I think that's what kept us going all these years.
'I always say that we never got married, so that's why we are still best of friends and still love working together.'
Chris went on to say: 'Never leave the ice with an argument though. We've grown up through all those stages of life, from 15-year-olds to 20-year-olds to 30-year-olds to marriages to children, retirement now.
'We've done so much over the 50 years and seen so much together over the 50 years.'
But now that their skating career has come to an end, the pair teased that they will continue to work together - and remain pals.
Chris said: 'We'll meet up in London and go and watch a show at least once a month, something like that. We like mentoring. We'll work with other people.
'I still really enjoy choreographing, so I hope to work with other skaters, and certainly other shows, other skating shows.'
'We've got other work things coming up, but not performing on the ice together,' Jayne teased. 'We are quite often invited to give talks at events and so on.
'And normally we wouldn't have had time for that, but we'll have more time to do stuff like that.'
In April, they embarked on the UK leg of their farewell tour, Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance, which culminated with four performances in their home town of Nottingham.
Following their final performance together, Dean 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 added: '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 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.'
She added that they would continue to work together on other projects but said they will not be skating on the ice together.
Posting a video of their last dance together, the pair said the performance would 'forever be in our hearts'.
The pair became household names after their gold medal-winning performance at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984.
They became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single programme.
They also had success at the World, European and British Championships and returned to the Winter Games at Lillehammer in Norway in 1994 where they won bronze.
After they bowed out from competitive skating, they branched out into touring, coaching and choreographing before becoming the faces of celebrity competition show Dancing On Ice, which ran from 2006 until 2014.
When the show was revived in 2018 they became head judges until earlier this year when ITV announced it would be rested.
