It was a lonely scene that had left guests at Birmingham’s Malmaison hotel both surprised and rather sad.
Ola Jordan, one of Strictly’s best-known professional dancers, sat alone at the bar, looking decidedly glum as her husband James partied with his celebrity dance partner Denise van Outen just a few metres away.
It was January 2013, and earlier that night glamorous, Polish-born Ola had danced into the lead with Olympic gymnast Louis Smith during the opening night of the Strictly tour at the nearby National Indoor Arena.
My spies that night confided that not a word had been exchanged between the Jordans, who had then been married for almost ten years and ran a dance business together.
And as the night drew to a close, Ola had gone to bed early while James stayed up dancing and knocking back shots until 2am.
The following morning at breakfast, onlookers noted neither were wearing their wedding rings. Nor could they have seemed any further apart – while Ola ate alone, James sat at a table with Denise, some producers and Strictly pro dancer Artem Chigvintsev.
Fast forward 13 years to today and we now know that the Jordans’ nearly 23-year marriage is over.
A source said the couple went their separate ways ‘some time ago’ and have been co-parenting their daughter Ella, six, ever since.
James and Ola Jordan at the launch of Strictly Come Dancing in 2012
In a statement on Friday, their publicist said: ‘It is with great sadness that I can confirm that James and Ola began a trial separation some time ago.
‘Their shared priority remains co-parenting their daughter, Ella, and they are committed to putting her wellbeing first.’
Friends apparently insist that relations are amicable and that it came as a ‘shock’.
But as long ago as that Birmingham hotel scene of 2013, there have been rumours that the Jordans’ marriage was in trouble. There were claims that James, 48, and Denise, 52, had struck up a close friendship as Strictly dance partners. They reached the show’s final in December 2012.
Indeed, when they learned they had made it through to the last week, they were seen huddled together deep in conversation in the green room at the BBC’s Television Centre in White City after filming. There was no sign of Ola, 43, who that year had been forced to make repeated dashes back to Poland to visit her unwell mother.
‘They were sat very close and deep in conversation,’ says my source, who was there. ‘They very much kept themselves to themselves. No one went over to them all night, it was just the two of them sat at the table.
‘They had become very good friends during their time together, which is of course totally normal. They both wanted to win but there were rumours that Ola was upset about it, like she had been cast out. Ola seemed broken at that time while James was having a great time with Denise.
‘Back then there was chatter about the marriage and how things were going.’
I remember wondering myself whether James and Ola were struggling away from the glitz and the glamour of the BBC dance show where Ola was, by far, the highest-profile professional star.
One source who knew their management team well would regularly tell me that they thought James was ‘jealous’ of Ola’s success and attention.
He also had a reputation for being aggressive within the Strictly gang.
It all meant I was not surprised to hear the news that they had split.
I’ve come into contact with Kent-born James several times and have found him domineering and loud.
James Jordan and Denise van Outen at the Birmingham date of the Strictly Come Dancing live tour in January 2013
Following their departures from Strictly, life went quiet for Ola and James – other than some appearances in celebrity magazines
I have also watched him be harsh with his dance partners, including once when he told Casualty actress Georgina Bouzova, whom he was partnered with on Strictly in 2006, what he would do if she forgot her dance moves: ‘I’ll drag you across the floor and then scream at you when we get off.’ He also called her fat.
I have long wondered whether he calls the shots.
For example, just months after James and Denise’s boozy night on the tiles in Birmingham, I revealed that James had been axed by Strictly bosses. Some had grown tired of him, citing his perceived arrogance as a factor. He was furious.
Five months later, in October 2014, I told how Ola was to leave Strictly at the end of that series – apparently because she and James wanted to have a baby.
However, it was not lost on me that her departure so closely followed James’s exit.
A source says: ‘The public loved Ola, so did the BBC, and so did her celebrity partners. The same wasn’t true for James. Then all of a sudden, after he was axed, she left. It felt like he was behind it. The party line at the time was that they wanted a baby, and of course they did [have one] some years later after much trying.
‘She seemed to go along with a lot of what he wanted to do. But while it was all packaged up by her team as Ola’s decision, there was much speculation that she was sad to have given it up.
‘There were many worries for Ola from her Strictly friends; some didn’t believe she wanted to quit.’
Following their departures, life went quiet for the pair – other than some appearances in celebrity magazines.
That was until 2023, when James and Ola launched a money-spinning idea to cash in on their Strictly past. Dance Shred was a fitness programme that helped their followers with their diets and exercise regimes. The couple themselves had lost a combined six-and-a-half stone in five months – a drastic measure inspired by an unflattering pool-side photograph.
It was surely an embarrassing climb-down for a duo who were once at the top of their game in ballroom dancing. Again, some suspected that Ola was doing it because James wanted to.
An industry source said: ‘It was quite unseemly and if you look at the videos it appeared that Ola was just going along with it because James wanted to do it.
‘It felt very sad. Now, at least, Ola is single and she can do whatever she likes.’
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