Inside Dancing On Ice’s Jayne Torvill’s family life with 35-year marriage and two children

Jayne Torvill attends the photocall for© 2025 Karwai Tang

Jayne Torvill, a household name in the UK and Ireland, first captured hearts when she clinched gold in figure skating with Christopher Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Today, she’s widely recognised as a judge on Dancing On Ice.

Beyond her professional achievements, Jayne is a dedicated wife and mother. Contrary to what some might think or assume, she has never been romantically involved with Christopher Dean.

Jayne has been happily married since 1990 and is a proud mum to two children, having bravely faced personal challenges along the way. Here’s everything you need to know about her family life.

Did Jayne Torvill ever date Christopher Dean?

While many fans have speculated that Torvill and Dean might be an item off the ice, this simply isn’t the case. However, they did once share a teenage kiss.

“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,” Jayne previously shared with Radio Times. Christopher also reflected on the moment: “We were 14-years-old, and teenagers in the most naive sense. We didn’t talk about it much after.”

Jayne Torvill’s marriage to husband Phil

Jayne’s other half is sound engineer Phil Christensen. The couple exchanged vows back in September 1990 and have enjoyed over thirty years together.

While Phil is a staunch supporter of Jayne’s career, the pair tend to keep their marriage away from the public eye.

Jayne Torvill with husband Phil and children Jessica and Kieran© Instagram

Jayne Torvill’s two children and struggle to become a mum

The journey to parenthood wasn’t straightforward for Jayne and Phil, who ultimately welcomed their two children, Kieran and Jessica, through adoption.

Back in 2013, the ice skating icon candidly shared her journey to motherhood, including the heartbreak of an ectopic pregnancy and subsequent IVF attempts. Appearing on Piers Morgan’s ITV show Life Stories, she shared: “As a couple skating together, it’s easy for the guy to go off and start a family because it wouldn’t affect his skating. Whereas for me, it would have stopped what we were doing, so I left it quite late and I was into my forties by then.”

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She continued: “I got pregnant quite quickly and I thought, ‘Oh this is fine’. And when I went to have a scan they said I had an ectopic pregnancy, and I didn’t know what that meant. They said, ‘The embryo’s growing in one of the tubes’. And I said, ‘Oh, ok, so how do you get it out then? ‘. And they said, ‘We don’t. We can’t’.”

This devastating revelation led Jayne down a tough road of surgery and IVF: “That’s when it hit me. So I went through the surgery and then it was obvious it was going to be more difficult. So we tried IVF for about a year. That, as a lot of women know, is traumatic in itself.”

Jayne Torvill with husband Phil and daughter Jessica© Instagram

Despite the struggles, Jayne often shares moments with her children, Kieran and Jessica, on social media, expressing her immense pride in them.

Jayne has also spoken openly about the influence of her parents, George and Betty, on her skating career, recalling how she “pestered” them to let her pursue her passion for ice skating.

She shared with Reader’s Digest: “When I was almost nine [in 1966], my teacher started taking some of us to the local ice rink after school on a Friday. By the second visit, I was hooked. The skating coach maybe saw something in me and said, ‘Why don’t you ask your parents if you can join Ice Cubs [a skating group]? ‘””So I kept on and on at them and they let me go. This meant I was skating Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, which was really exciting. I loved it.”

She also expressed gratitude towards her parents for instilling in her the importance of hard work. “My dad George went off early in the mornings to work for Raleigh Bicycles. Mum gave me my tea then left for a late shift as a machinist. Dad was home by then, so I had the evenings with him, but by the time Mum got in at 10pm, I’d usually be in bed. Friday nights were special though: Mum got home a bit earlier and I was allowed to stay up. She always brought me a chocolate bar.”