S Club star Rachel Stevens faced a barrage of social media criticism for her relationship with her Dancing On Ice partner after opening up on TV about the breakdown of her marriage to her childhood sweetheart
Indigo Stafford
By anyone’s standards, it has been a tough couple of weeks for Rachel Stevens, who faced a backlash after opening up about the pain of her marriage breakdown, after she fell for her Dancing On Ice partner Brendyn Hatfield.
The S Club singer, 46, spoke out for the first time about her split from husband Alex Bourne, admitting that developing romantic feelings for professional skater Brendyn, 38 – her now boyfriend – was the reason behind the separation.
Rachel, who met Brendyn in late 2021 during training for Dancing On Ice, confessed that her marriage to estate agent Alex was already on the rocks before she joined the ITV show. She said meeting Brendyn was the confirmation she needed to end things, leading to a “messy and scary” split from her ex.
But a source tells us, “Rachel might have thought she was doing the right thing by talking openly about falling for Brendyn and the breakdown of her marriage with Alex.
And she may have hoped that people were going to relate and understand her point of view. But sadly, she’s had a lot of backlash.”
Rachel married her childhood sweetheart Alex in 2009, but cracks had started to appear in their relationship by the time she was on Dancing On Ice at the start of 2022. She said she’d had to confess her feelings for Brendyn to her husband before their split. She went public with Brendyn in November 2023.
But her honesty didn’t go down well with everyone, with one person on social media saying, “Why do these people always play the victim? She dumped him. She left her husband and broke up her kids’ family for another man.”
The criticism came after Rachel appeared on Lorraine to talk about the difficulties she’s faced co-parenting with her ex. “It’s not been easy,” she told viewers.
The former couple have two daughters – Amelie, 13, and Minnie, 10 – and Rachel told Lorraine they’ve been making sure they put the children first.
“It’s a process like with anything, and I love the word ‘navigate’ because it so is,” she said. “With kids, there are always things coming at you and they’re always our priority and our focus, and keeping them safe in it all.
“It’s not easy, but I feel very lucky that the kids are our priority, and
