Professional dancer and British reality TV star Kristina Rihanoff has denied a wave of online accusations that she is the reason why her former dancing partner, ex-England rugby star Ben Cohen, and his wife Abby ended their marriage in September.
The 37-year-old Russian dancer, one of the competitors in Strictly Come Dancing, was left so devastated by taunts on Twitter claiming she was a man-stealing home-wrecker that she seriously considered taking her own life, The Daily Star said on December 21st.
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Both Rihanoff and Cohen have categorically denied that they were romantically involved, but nonetheless both were inundated with “hate” online, U.K. blog Unreality TV said.
She said, “Nothing was going on between me and Ben, but all this blame was piled on me. It was like an assault, ” the Star said.
“I’ve always been strong but the abuse destroyed me emotionally. I cried for days and days and nights on end. I felt like I was in hell, ” she said.
She told The Sun: “Every day I had to be scraped off the floor again. I’d be in tears minutes before performing the routine every Saturday night. “I felt like the ten million people watching all hated me.”
She even begged producers of the program to let her bow out of the show.
At her lowest point, Kristina thought about ending it all, she confessed: “To make matters worse, my mum couldn’t come see me because she was having tests in Russia after being diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells.”
The Sunday Express quoted her as saying, “I’m always the one on Strictly who boosts people’s confidence with pep talks. But in that moment I couldn’t find a single positive thing to say to myself. I just thought: ‘What is the point?’
“Everywhere I looked it was all wrong and all dark, I’d had enough. I wanted to quit the show, to quit everything, ” she said.
Thankfully Kristina appears to be through the worst and sent a message of thanks to her supporters last night after the show, the report said.
This year Rihanoff was paired with fellow contestant Simon Webbe and she’s laughed off rumors that the couple are dating.
“People think I’m this man-eater with men falling at my feet. I wish that was the case, but it’s not.”
