Strictly’s Kristina Rihanoff sobs as partner Ben Cohen reveals money troubles are threatening their house and relationship

Ben is now in a relationship with Kristina Rihanoff
-Credit: (Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)


Strictly Come Dancing’s Kristina Rihanoff and Ben Cohen are "fighting to save their home and relationship" he has revealed while talking about their money woes. The revelation came out in court, where the couple were appearing for offences related to their car. Strictly professional Kristina and partner, Ben, who is a former Rugby World Cup winner, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday after Kristina after she was caught driving her Audi Q3 car, worth £30,000, without any insurance this April.

On Friday, the couple went to court with Ben acting as Kristina’s witness. Ben, 45, gave an emotional 20 minute long account to the court explaining the couple’s troubles which had led to the offence. He revealed: “I get up every day and I fight not to lose everything – to lose my cars and my house and my relationship."

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Kristina and Ben have been engaged since 2022 and share a daughter together -Credit:krihanoff/Instagram

The rugby player added: "We’re still living together… We’re in it financially. We’re in business together so the problem is that we opened the business before Covid and we got the worst severities of it and in all honestly this is just another problem for me to deal with.”

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Ben continued: "I've got credit cards that are overdrawn. I'm overdrawn in both accounts. We have got a business debt because of Covid. It's just another problem."

During the hearing, Kristina, 46, cried and had to leave the court with her hands over her mouth as she felt ill, before sitting through the rest of the hearing wrapped in a blanket and dabbing her eyes with a tissue. The court heard that Kristina needed to drive around the country to judge ballroom dancing competitions, from which she earns £2,000 a month, and to drive her children to school.

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The pair dancing on Strictly
A court heard that the couple are struggling to cope with their debts -Credit:PA

Ben confirmed to the court that he had been the one in the couple responsible for the insurance for their cars - but that her car had gone uninsured after he ignored a text from their insurance company.

The couple met on the eleventh season of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, where they were partnered together. They welcomed their daughter together in 2016, and announced their engagement just two years ago, in November 2022.

After leaving the show as a Strictly professional in 2015, Kristina became a qualified yoga teacher, sharing last year on Instagram, alongside a photo of her in her graduation gown: "And just like that it is over … My very first Yoga Teacher Training at @sooyogauk came to an end yesterday with 13 new qualified yoga teacher under my guidance.”