TV judge Christopher Dean first took up ice skating as a young boy after his stepmother talked his dad into buying him a pair of skates.
Christopher, 62, has previously detailed how during his initial steps onto the rink he fell over ‘a hundred times’.
But the Dancing On Ice star also told of how he kept getting back up – and fell in love with ice skating, being taken along every Saturday.
However, Christopher also identifies how his focus and drive may have come from his parents splitting up when he was six.
What has Dancing On Ice judge Christopher Dean said about his parents’ split?
Back in 2014, Christopher Dean opened up about his childhood struggles and how they possibly influenced him.
He recalled the painful memories of his mother Mavis moving out after his father Colin’s affair came to light.
Despite pleading with his mum not go, a week later he found her standing by the front door with a suitcase. His new stepmother Betty moved in the same day.
Read more: Were Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean ever a couple? Duo return to screens for Dancing On Thin Ice
Christopher’s account makes it clear neither his mother nor his father communicated or explained their feelings with their son.
And he believes his separation from his mother – even after she moved back to the Nottinghamshire mining village he was raised in – bore a critical influence on him.
View this post on Instagram
‘Always independent’
Christopher explained: “Losing my mum and being an only child definitely went some way to making me who I am today.
“I’ve always been very independent and emotionally quite self-reliant. Yes, I’m driven, and if I get it in my head to do something I’ll always give it my best shot. But everything I do, I do with consideration.”
My dad was my constant in life, he was my hero.
And although Christopher admits his relationship with Betty wasn’t easy, he still idolises his dad. Christopher describes his late dad as ‘hard-working and decent’, even their interactions weren’t particularly “deep”.
He added, gratefully: “My dad was my constant in life, he was my hero. The one person I knew who would always be there for me. That alone was monumentally important after my mum left.”
Christopher and his changing relationship with his mum
Former police officer Christopher also recalled how it wasn’t until the 1990s until he began seeing him mum again regularly.
She rarely attended his early skating performances. And he notes how partner Jayne Torvill was tasked with ensuring he wasn’t distracted by his mum when she would turn up.
Read more: Torvill and Dean dismiss intimacy between skaters on Dancing On Ice as being a ‘curse’
But he also shared how she would also come to the studio in the early days of DOI.
Christopher revealed: “Occasionally I’d look up to where she was sitting and, regardless of what was happening on the ice, she’d always have her gaze fixed on me, as though she was frightened of losing sight of me.”
Dancing On Ice 2022 begins on ITV on Sunday January 16 at 6.30pm.
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think of this story.