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Torvill and Dean preparing for split


Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are planning to retire.

The figure skating legends became British heroes at the 1984 Olympics when they won the gold medal for their bolero, and the ‘Dancing on Ice’ mentors are now gearing up to return to Sarajevo, in Bosnia, to recreate the performance for the final time before they split up later this year.

Torvill revealed: "We’re not going to perform the bolero after this year ever again – and we’re taking a break from each other. We tried to retire in 1998 but then ‘Dancing On Ice’ sprung up."

Dean – who will move to the United States permanently when the pair part ways – agreed with her saying: "It will be like a death really."

Although they have been skating partners for nearly 30 years, it was only last year that the pair admitted to having had a brief romantic relationship when they were teenagers and they have now opened up about the fling.

Dean, 55, told The Sun newspaper: "We were very involved. We were really close – we spent so many hours together training week in week out."

Addressing people’s assumptions that the pair had always been a couple, 56-year-old Torvill added: "We weren’t dating anyone else. We were so boring – skating, eating and sleeping."

Torvill and Dean will travel to Sarajevo next week to perform the routine for the last time.

‘Dancing on Ice’, which is currently airing an all-stars series on ITV, will end this year after the skating duo decided to leave the show.