Look out , Yvette! Ed’s landed this red-hot Russian
EVEN before learning the identity of his professional dance partner, Ed Balls admitted he was terrified of taking part in Strictly Come Dancing.
But the former Shadow Chancellor now has a good reason to be nervous after last night’s opening episode saw him paired with a stunning Russian ‘heartbreaker’.
Producers of the hit show hope Katya Jones, 27, from St Petersburg will send temperatures and ratings soaring as she makes her Strictly debut.
But speaking to The Mail on Sunday, her former boyfriend and dance partner revealed how she broke his heart by moving to Britain. Igor Astafiev, 30, said he was so traumatised by the split that he stopped dancing altogether.
He said: ‘She was my first true love. She was also my last dancing partner and I am not competing since our split. It was deeply painful for both of us. It took me about a year to recover.’
Mr Astafiev’s relationship with Katya broke down in 2008, just before the couple were due to compete together in Blackpool.
Following the split, she travelled to Blackpool with her mother and met British dancer Neil Jones, who she would later marry.
In hindsight, Mr Astafiev wonders whether his relationship with the fiercely ambitious dancer from a wealthy family ever stood a chance.
He said: ‘Katya always wanted to go professional. She dreamt of England and of the very coach from Blackpool she ended up with. All her plans and ambitions were only with dancing.’
Mr Astafiev, who recently married ‘the second love of my life’, said he wished his former partner all the success in the world.
Mr Balls’s pairing with Katya – who has been dancing since the age of six – drew gasps from the studio audience last night, although his wife, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, smiled.
Nine million viewers tuned in last night to watch as former MP Mr Balls, who lost his seat in last year’s General Election, twisted and strutted his stuff in the closing group number.
Speaking just hours before the show got under way, Mr Balls said: ‘I am more scared of doing this than anything I have done in politics so far.
‘Everyone has been really nice and really supportive so in that sense it’s not like the Commons at all.’
Mr Balls, 49, said a recent eighthour training session for the show had been more physically demanding than the London Marathon.
He said he hoped taking part in Strictly would let the public see another side of him, adding that he would have no choice but to be himself because the programme offered no hiding places.
‘I am okay with rhythm but my biggest problem is going to be posture, or the lack of it,’ Mr Balls said.
‘I took the video home last week and I said to the family that I looked like a rugby player and they said a camp rugby player; a sort of mincing prop forward. All the things that [judge] Craig Revel Horwood normally says to people, he is going to have to say to me – about my hands, my shoulders and my arms.’
...BUT AT LEAST SHE’S PUTTING A BRAVE FACE ON IT FOR THE CAMERAS