She has been a household name for more than 35 years, but Jayne Torvill tends to keep her family life out of the spotlight.
While many people mistakenly believe she is in a relationship with her Dancing on Ice judge and skating partner Christopher Dean, Jayne has actually been married for over 30 years and has two children.
Get to know more about the 67-year-old skating star’s family here…
Husband
Jayne is married to Phil Christensen, an American sound engineer. The pair tied the knot on 21 September 1990, so have been married for over 30 years.
Jayne rarely shares photos with Phil in and the pair have decided against discussing their marriage.
Children
Jayne and Phil are parents to two children, Kieran and Jessica, who are both adopted. In 2013, Jayne opened up about her journey to motherhood during an interview on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, and revealed she first suffered an ectopic pregnancy before enduring 12 months of IVF treatment.
“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,” she said. “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.”
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’.
“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 clearly dotes on her children, and occasionally shares sweet family photos with them on Instagram, including photos when she took her teenage son to a garden party at Buckingham Palace one summer.
Jessica turned 17 in 2023, and Jayne celebrated by sharing a photo in front of a car to show that her daughter had learned to drive.
The family also has an adorable Jack Russell dog named Lulu! Sharing a snap of daughter Jessica and son Keiran with the six-month-old pup with her Instagram followers, Jayne wrote: “We have a new member of the family! #Lulu.”
Parents
Jayne is the daughter of parents George and Betty and has previously said they worked hard to help her achieve her dreams.
Speaking to Reader’s Digest, Jayne said: “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.”
