'It was traumatic': Jayne Torvill breaks down in tears on Piers Morgan's Life Stories as she relives IVF ordeal publicly for first time
By SIMON CABLE and KIMBERLEY DADDS
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And this week is no different as Jayne Torvill broke down in tears while filming Piers Morgan's Life Stories show as she opened up in public for the first time about her IVF struggles.
The professional ice skater has been happily married to US sound engineer Phil Christensen for 23 years and the couple have two adopted children Kieran, ten, and Jessica, six.
Shock confession: Tovill and Dean admitted to sharing a kiss at the back of a bus during an episode of Piers Morgan's Life Stories
She first suffered an ectopic pregnancy before having IVF treatment for 12 months before the couple finally decided to adopt.
Talking about her struggle while fighting back the tears, Miss Torvill said: ‘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.
‘And having an ectopic pregnancy as well, 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.” So 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.’
And when Piers asked her about her decision to adopt she confessed: 'Well, a friend of mine had adopted a little boy. She said, “Come and see him.’ And at that point I wasn’t ready to look into adoption, I was still thinking it was going to happen, and you’ve got to be ready for it, if you want to adopt.
Denial: Torvill initially disputed Dean's claims they had kissed and seemed to suggest she did not remember the incident at all
'I said to my husband, ‘I don’t know if I could do this.’ And I went to see this little boy and I wanted to bring him home.'
As she fought back tears, Dean then commented: 'She's never talked about it in public before.'
But it wasn't the only confession of the chat.
They finally ended decades of speculation after they confessed to a romantic ‘dabble’ as young skaters.
Now Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have admitted that their brief moment of intimacy happened when they shared a kiss at the back of a bus.
The duo made the confession during an interview with Piers Morgan for his ITV1 Life Stories programme, despite constant denials throughout their career that they had ever had a fling.
And despite a partnership that has lasted 38 years, the pair’s admission proved remarkably awkward, with Miss Torvill initially disputing Dean’s version of events.
During the heartfelt interview, in which a tearful Miss Torvill publicly discussed the trauma of her failed attempts to conceive through IVF for the first time, and Dean discussed the breakup of his family when he was a child, the pair were asked by Morgan: ‘Just to clarify, you have never had any kind of relationship? Seriously? Nothing?’
Tough times: Torvill and Dean have had some trying situations in their lives since meeting each other and becoming skating partners
Miss Torvill, 55, replied: ‘Well you see, when I first saw Chris, I fell in love with him but then we started skating together and that was it, it was done. People find that hard to understand.’
After repeatedly denying they had ever kissed, Dean, 54, finally relented, saying: ‘We may have dabbled slightly, but..’
At first, his partner attempted to dismiss his comments, saying: ‘Was I there? Was I there, honestly?’ When asked to clarify the word ‘dabble’, she offered: ‘I think we came back from a coach trip one time. We sat at the back. I think he probably put his arm around me and I fell asleep.
Dean then joked: ‘We sat on the back seat of one of those coaches. While she was asleep I may have kissed her. She knew nothing.’
Morgan continued by asking the pair: ‘I think there was a bit of snogging on the back seat of the coach, wasn’t there?’ before Dean added: ‘It was a dabble. There might have been some kissing. And that’s as far as it goes.’
He added: ‘It’s an unusual relationship that we have. And yet at the same time, of course we love each other. You wouldn’t be able to do all that we do without love.’
Heartache: Torvill has struggled to become a mother and spoke of having IVF treatment before deciding to adopt
The admission brings to an end almost four decades of speculation over their close relationship. The incident is believed to have happened shortly after they began skating together as amateurs in 1975, when Dean was 16 and Torvill was 17.
Several years later they shot to fame dancing the Bolero and winning gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
Two years ago, Miss Torvill claimed they banned themselves from sleeping together because they feared it would damage their skating partnership.
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, referred to Miss Torvill as ‘the third person in my 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 couple grew close when they became mentors, alongside Miss Torvill, on the ITV dance contest Dancing on Ice in 2006.
During the interview, Christopher Dean revealed his torment at seeing his mother Mavis walk out on the family when he was six years old and seeing his father Colin’s girlfriend, a family friend, move into their home just hours later.
He admitted that he has never spoken to his parents about why they split.
Holding it together: While Dean managed to remain composed during the interview, he spoke about his trouble family life and upsetting memories from his childhood
He told Morgan: ‘I was six at the time. One day mum said that she was leaving and then I remember her leaving the house. I saw her going out with her case and a couple of hours later Betty arrived. I’d known Betty because the couples had been friends.
‘Nothing was said. My dad and I never had a conversation. To this day I still don’t know how or why.’
Dean’s father died of a heart attack in 1984. When asked if he would still be able to find closure now that he was unable to ask his father about his parent’s divorce, he said: ‘I don’t know whether I want closure.
Dean’s father died of a heart attack in 1984. When asked if he would still be able to find closure now that he was unable to ask his father about his parent’s divorce, he said: ‘I don’t know whether I want closure.
‘I don’t know whether I want to hear other things about my dad from my mum’s point of view. You know my dad, in my head, was there all the time. The day that my dad died, it was the most tragic day of my life. When I look back on anything, the moment of absolute tragedy for me, in my life, was that moment.
‘To me it’s in the past. I think all the events that have happened to me have made me the person that I am and I think the one thing that it most probably did, it made me an independent person. And I think that then made me a stronger person and then out of that came the determination.’
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Torvill and Dean ITV1 9pm tonight.
Moving on: Torvill and Dean are now working on popular television skating contest Dancing On Ice and after working together for decades
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2289730/Jayne-Torvill-breaks-tears-Piers-Morgans-Life-Stories-relives-IVF-ordeal-publicly-time.html#ixzz2MyeaADx3
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