Gemma Atkinson has spoken out about recent reports that she and Gorka Marquez have split up.
The former Emmerdale actress, 39, and professional dancer, 33, first met when she signed up for the fifteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing back in 2017.
Although she was paired with Aljaž Škorjanec, Atkinson and Marquez struck up a friendship and romance soon blossomed.
Since then, they have got engaged and become proud parents to daughter Mia, four, and six-month-old son Santiago.Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine to discuss her debut children’s book Dogs Don’t Dance, Atkinson was asked about her fiancé by the Scottish TV host.
She said: “It was actually my Auntie who messaged me and said ‘Is everything okay?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, yeah it’s fine’ but I get that people find it strange that we are apart a lot but that’s how it’s always been since we met.
“Every year I know between August and Christmas, and Gorka knows, he doesn’t know where he is going to be.”
She added: “Because I have done Strictly and I know that side of it, it’s not a shock to me.
“Army wives, their partners are away for six or seven months and they make out that I’ve been moaning that I’ve been on my own for three weeks but really I am having the best time.
“You don’t want to be so dependent on each other that you can’t do anything without them and I think that’s what’s great about me and Gorka is that on his own he’s great, on my own I’m great but together it’s like unstoppable.”
Discussing how she is celebrating six years with Marquez, she said: “I think because we’re apart so much it feels a lot longer, in a nice way. The job he is doing now is fabulous because he is a judge on the Spanish Strictly so he flies to Madrid every Friday and then he flies back every Sunday.
“He’s like Anton, he said, he’s like the nice judge. So he’s home during the week but on the weekends I get my space, I get time with the kids and he gets to go and do what he loves. It’s perfect.”
