Yes, we DID have a fling: Torvill and Dean finally admit they ‘dabbled’ as teenagers

• Christopher Dean says the brief romance happened in 1975
• Skating pair revealed the fling in interview for Piers Morgan’s Life Stories
  

On the ice, they formed a sizzling partnership – but they were always quick to deny that the heat between them continued off the ice.

However, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have now confirmed the suspicions of millions of fans by admitting that they did have a fling.

After years of speculation, the pair have revealed they ‘dabbled’ when they were teenagers, several years before they shot to fame dancing the Bolero and winning gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean told interviewer Piers Morgan that they had ‘a little dabble once’ as teenagers

Nine years after their short fling, the skating duo took gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with their performance to Ravel’s Bolero

Torvill and Dean, pictured in 1981, had previously denied romance between them on the grounds it would ruin their skating partnership

They finally confessed to the brief romance in an interview with chat show host Piers Morgan for his ITV1 Life Stories programme.

After shooting the show, the presenter wrote on Twitter: ‘BREAKING NEWS: “Yes, we dabbled…” – @torvillanddean finally admit to a romantic past together, albeit a very short one.’

According to one member of the audience, the pair attempted to deny they had ever been romantically involved following persistent questioning by Morgan.

However, it was Dean who finally relented during Wednesday night’s filming, saying that nothing had happened – ‘apart from a  little dabble once’.

He explained that it happened when they were teenagers, shortly after they began skating together as amateurs in 1975, when Dean was 16 and Torvill was 17.

Nine years later, the duo went on to win gold for Britain for their performance to Ravel’s Bolero in Sarajevo. They scored 12 out of 18 possible sixes for their free dance and the maximum of nine sixes for artistic impression.

Miss Torvill, 55, and Dean, 54, previously denied ever allowing romance to blossom between them.

Dean’s first wife Isabelle Duchesnay found his close friendship with Torvill too much to bear

Dean was married to Canadian skater Isabelle Duchesnay between 1991 and 1993

The Dancing on Ice pair were pictured in Lillehammer, Norway with Dean’s second wife Jill Trenary, left, and Miss Torvill’s husband Phil Christensen

In an interview to be broadcast next month, Torvill and Dean look back on their long partnership, including their gold medal winning performance in Sarajevo

Dean began dating fellow Dancing on Ice mentor Karen Barber shortly after his split from second wife Jill Trenary

Two years ago, Miss Torvill claimed they banned themselves from jumping into bed together because they feared it would damage their skating partnership.

She said: ‘We decided very early on that if we had slept together we couldn’t have skated.

‘I remember somebody saying to me, “If you’re dating your skating partner and the relationship breaks down, you won’t have your skating partner”.’ The pair retired from professional skating in 1998.

Dean has said previously: ‘We put to one side all those other elements that we thought would conflict with what we needed to do. That’s how obsessed it was. It was almost like being in a monastery. It was a religion in its own way.’

But they have admitted in  the past their close friendship often caused problems with their partners.

Dean’s first wife, fellow skater Isabelle Duchesnay, to whom he was married for two years between 1991 and 1993, found his friendship with Miss Torvill too much to bear.

He said: ‘She used to say there were three people in our marriage.’

After the couple split, Dean went on to marry former US figure skater Jill Trenary, with whom he had two children, Jack and Sam.

However, the pair broke up in 2009 after 16 years of marriage and Dean began dating Dancing on Ice judge and former Olympic skater Karen Barber shortly after.

The ice skating pair, pictured in 1982, retired from professional skating in 1998 before enjoying joint success mentors on ITV’s Dancing on Ice

The couple grew close when they became mentors, alongside Miss Torvill, on the ITV dance contest in 2006.

Miss Torvill has been happily married to US sound engineer Phil Christensen for 23 years and the couple have two children Kieran, ten, and Jessica, six.

The episode of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories featuring Dean and Miss Torvill will air on March 8.