It took less than 24 hours after Kym Marsh’s divorce from Army Major Scott Ratcliffe was reported for the Strictly Come Dancing-related cheating rumours to start. The actor competed as part of Strictly Come Dancing in November last year, partnered with Graziano Di Prima, with tabloids now dubbing them victims of the ‘Strictly curse’ despite sources citing that their relationship breakdown was due to conflicting work commitments.
Now, Google Trends data is reflecting the insidious implications of the tabloid headlines. The 46-year-old is currently topping Google Trends searches, with ‘Kym Marsh Strictly partner’ a breakout search term in relation to her name as well as ‘Kym Marsh divorce’.
It’s of course offensive to all parties involved, with Graziano married himself to his partner of eight years, Giada Lini. During Kym’s time on Strictly with Graziano, tabloids were sure to imply there was something going on between the pair. Headlines about their ‘sizzling chemistry’ were common, as were reports that her relationship at home was ‘on the rocks’ with claims that viewers spotted ‘tense’ moments between Kym and her in-laws after dancing the rumba with Graziano.
In actual fact, the moment was not so tense at all. In a video interview after the so-called ‘sizzling’ Rumba performance, Kym herself joked about how awkward it is having your husband’s in-law’s watch such a sexy performance. ‘I love you, Scott!’ Graziano then proclaimed, to which his in-laws laughed.
‘He's very quickly become like a little brother to me,’ Kym told Hello magazine of Graziano at the time, who is 18 years her junior. ‘Graziano is from a big family himself and is very family-orientated, so it was important for us to build a friendship and I wanted to integrate him into the family.’
There’s no suggestion then that any kind of infidelity is involved in the subsequent breakdown of Kym and Scott’s marriage, in fact sources say that it’s more to do with the stress of both their time-consuming jobs with Kym also living in Cheshire while Scott is based in barracks down south. So, while intensive Strictly rehearsals may not have helped them find the time to be together, any suggestions of cheating seem like an unfair reach.
Of course, it’s an unsurprising narrative for salacious tabloids to turn such a sad affair into something unnecessarily scandalous – but with the Google search data proving that the public are falling for it, perhaps it’s worth remembering to always take such rumours with a pinch of salt.