Strictly stars James and Ola Jordan confirm separation after 20 years

James and Ola Jordan have confirmed that their marriage has ended after more than 20 years, closing a partnership that helped make them one of Strictly Come Dancing’s most recognisable couples. The pair, who married in 2003, will continue to co-parent their daughter Ella.

A representative said the Jordans had already been in a trial separation some time ago. Their split has prompted interest well beyond celebrity gossip because James and Ola were not just former contestants, but long-running professional dancers who became part of the show’s identity across several series.

James Jordan, a dancer and choreographer, and Ola Jordan, a Polish-born dancer, first began dating in 1999. Before returning to the UK, they spent four years in Hong Kong teaching dance, then settled in Kent. That shared professional and personal history gave their relationship a public profile unusual even by Strictly standards, where dancers often become household names through years of Friday-night visibility.

BBC programme material has described James as honest and cheeky, while Ola has been presented as small and energetic. Those on-screen characterisations fed a version of the couple that viewers felt they knew, and their status as one of Strictly Come Dancing’s longest-standing couples made the separation feel like the end of a familiar television era as much as the end of a marriage.

The Jordans’ story has always blended performance with private life. They built their reputation in the ballroom, married in 2003, and then spent years as regular professionals on a programme whose audience often develops deep attachment to recurring faces. That kind of attachment has only intensified in a social-media age, where family updates, milestones and relationship changes are delivered directly to followers rather than filtered through traditional publicity.

For fans who watched James and Ola over several series, the announcement lands as more than a personal update. It marks the unwinding of a partnership that helped define a particular period of Strictly, when the show’s stars were marketed not only for their dancing but for the sense of continuity and familiarity they brought to British television.