Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean share a kiss on the ice after years of suggestive choreography speculation about their bond – saying their ‘unique’ dynamic is ‘not like brother and sister’ nor like ‘husband and wife’

Ice skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have done nothing to quell romance rumours as they shared a smooch during their trip to Sarajevo – to commemorate 40 years since winning gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in the same place.

The pair – who yesterday announced their retirement and a farewell tour – 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.

While both are in committed relationships – Jayne, 66, has been wed to Phil Christiansen since 1990, and Christopher, 65, was married twice before beginning a relationship with Karen Barber in 2011 – fans have long speculated that there is more to their bond.

They have both admitted 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.

Christopher has however in past 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.’

It’s clear that the unconventional dynamic between the pair makes for some great ice-skating, as the pair have for decades enjoyed teasing choreography with barely-there pecks and longing looks.

And the skaters are evidently used to being in each other’s arms, often squaring up close to one another and cuddling up for photos.

Both will embark on one final UK tour next year, which will be their swansong and mark 50 years since they formed their partnership in 1975.

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.

And despite both being in respective relationships, Jayne and Christopher have for decades sparked rumours of romance after yearning performances on the ice – even prompting one of their exes to hit out that their marriage had a third person in it.

Suspicions about their relationship were roused as soon as they snagged the gold medal.

In an interview after their win, Jayne – later speaking to the Radio Times – revealed that one reporter asked Christopher when he was planning on getting married.

‘And 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.

And 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. 

She 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.

Christopher’s 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 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 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.’ 

And 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.’

The pair also told the Mirror that they have a ‘unique’ dynamic and there is ‘nothing else like it’ – explaining they’re not ‘brother and sister’ nor ‘husband and wife’.

‘We still have a great spark and chemistry and we enjoy each other’s company but we have other partners as well,’ Jayne said.

Their farewell tour, Torvill and Dean: Our Last Dance, will run 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.

‘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.’

He said that they are looking at the tour as a ‘celebration’ but predicts they will feel emotional about their final skate the nearer is gets.

‘We’ll have a sense of pride as well, I think, of what we’ve done and still been able to do over the years, bringing competitive skating and competitions and then entertainment through the TV screen,’ he said.

‘I think we’ll get reflective and look at it not in a sad way but in a happy way.’

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. It will air a special commemorative tribute to their 1984 gold medal-winning performance during this Sunday’s episode.

‘That was really a launching pad of then going off to do other things,’ Dean said of their beloved 1984 routine.

‘Touring around the world, skating in front of hundreds of thousands of people and then Dancing On Ice starting up because of winning the Olympics.’