How DWTS judge Loraine found love after two husbands cheated on her
DANCING With The Stars judge Loraine Barry has opened up about the heart-breaking infidelity which led to the breakdown of her two tumultuous marriages.
The former world champion dancer has found happiness in recent years with English partner, Peter, and her starring role as a TV judge after the volatile romances with her debonair dancing partners.
But in RTÉ’s new series, Keys To My Life, in which celebrities revisit their former homes, Loraine’s trips stirred up memories of harrowing break-ups.
Standing on the balcony of the first Italian apartment she shared with second husband Luca Baricchi, the 56-year-old described the tragic sequence of events which ended their relationship in 2011.
She says: ‘He was coming up to 40 and I felt he was having this crisis. He said: “I’ve
‘He said: “Believe all the rumours you want”’
got a lot on my mind, I love you but I’m not really in love with you now.”
‘My friends told me he was having an affair. He denied it, and she was my student. He said: “You can believe all the rumours you want, I am just taking time out and I will be home.” That was on a Sunday. I got a message on Monday morning that he’d had an accident on a motorbike with the girl on the back and unfortunately she passed away. She was 30 years of age.
‘I was in shock. Everything was black. It was traumatic for me, for him, for everybody, it was a horrendous time, a hideous time. So, I said, “Right I’ve got to survive this” so I started again. And I started going out teaching.’
She described how the couple, who had won two world championships, had married in a romantic ceremony in the paradise island of
St Lucia in 1997, three years after meeting on the ballroom floor.
They had retired at the height of their success in 2001 to start a family in his Italian hometown and set up their own dance studio. Loraine says: ‘He sold me this beautiful fairytale.’
Standing in their one-time home,
Loraine remembers how happy they both were when she became pregnant. ‘I was delighted, he was very happy,’ she added. ‘Sadly, that year, on Christmas Eve in Dublin, I had a miscarriage.
Painful memories also come flooding back when Loraine pays a visit to the London apartment she shared with her first husband, Andrew Sinkinson. The couple were stars of the ballroom world but Loraine remembers how a phone call in the middle of the night led to her walking out on him. She recalls: ‘I can remember being in this bedroom and getting out of that bed at four in the morning and leaving with the car keys and driving because there was a phone call during the night and I couldn’t cope with it. [It was] another woman definitely and I answered it of course and this was really the breaking point between us.’
Although they separated in 1993, they continued to be dance partners for another 18 months.
Loraine says: ‘Certain teachers didn’t want me to split up with Andrew, they wanted me to dance with him... They put so much into us as professionals and they were trying to save the partnership and I was trying to save myself. I thought: “Is this the end of everything. Will I ever dance again?”’
Loraine, who went on to climb to the top of the dance world with her second husband, said she has now found lasting happiness with her partner, financier Peter Radcliffe, who has no connection with her profession.
The pair – who share a beautiful €4.5m mews house in London – met in a Chicago Airport five years ago before both boarding the same flight to Hong Kong.