Is this the last time we skate as a couple?

of Chris losing his dad, who brought him up after his mum abandoned him at the age of six. Chris was there for Jayne, married to sound engineer Phil Christensen for 28 years, throughout her painful IVF attempts.

Jayne – who has a 12-year old daughter Jessica and son Kieran, 16 – was Chris’s confidante throughout the breakdown of his two marriages.

His first wife, French-canadian ice dance champion Isabelle Duchesnay, said she felt there were three in their two-year marriage. But he remains on good terms with his second wife, US skater Jill Ternary with whom he shares two sons, Jack, 20, and Sam, 18.

Chris and Jill separated in 2010 and the following year his affair with fellow Dancing on Ice star judge Karen Barber was exposed. The couple are still happily together. Will they marry? “You never know,” says Chris.

No matter which celebs take to the rink, Jayne and Chris are the real stars of the ITV show. This series was the most dramatic yet thanks to all the antics of Towie’s Gemma Collins.

“It’s definitely calmer since Gemma left,” says Jayne. “She was always very outgoing and funny talking about herself.” Chris, who lives in Colorado, adds: “Gemma’s quite outrageous and outspoken, people like to hear that. But nobody’s bigger than the show.”

The hit series, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield, has won Jayne and Chris a new generation of fans. And a social media campaign in their home city of Nottingham, wants them to get a knighthood. “We’d be very humbled to receive any kind of recognition,” says Chris, adding: “We’d never turn it down.”

Dancing on Ice, ITV tomorrow, 6pm.