I’m Dancing On Ice star Ricky Hatton’s ex-girlfriend – he told me he loved me and the 14-year age gap means nothing
RICKY HATTON’S former girlfriend has told how he wooed her with a knockout move in a Spanish nightclub – by performing the worm.
The boxing great, nicknamed The Hitman, charmed Chelsea Claire with his karaoke skills and the hilarious attempt at the party-piece breakdance routine.
But despite Dancing On Ice star Ricky, 45, and model Chelsea ending their relationship last month, she hopes viewers keep him in the skating contest — however hard it is for her to see him on TV.
Describing the pain of their break-up, Chelsea, 31, told The Sun: “People said we were just a fling but I loved him.
“He told me he loved me. The 14-year age gap means nothing, but I don’t think he is ready to get married.
“Seeing him everywhere because of Dancing On Ice has definitely made the split harder.”
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She added of his chances in the ITV series: “He’s no Torvill and Dean but he’s got the heart, drive and personality to go the distance.”
The pair met in August at The Dubliner Bar in Tenerife’s tourist hotspot of Playa De Las Americas and quickly became inseparable.
Recalling her first encounter with the former world welterweight and light-welterweight boxing champion, Chelsea, who lives near Glasgow, said: “I didn’t know who he was but my friend offered to buy him a drink.
“Instead, he looked over at me and asked me what I wanted.
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“I said a Fireball. We both got them then went on the dance floor most of the night.
“He’s not afraid to take the p**s out of himself and was doing the worm.
“He had me laughing all night.
“I can’t say his dancing was as good as his karaoke.
“He sang Wonderwall by Oasis and he’s a really good singer.
“But he was just a real character and he added my Instagram that night so we could see each other again.”
Irish beauty Chelsea was due to fly home the next day.
But she extended her trip after Ricky asked her to stay — and pulled out all the stops on a romantic date.
She said: “He took me to this absolutely gorgeous restaurant and, when I got there, it was just us.
‘He is so romantic’
“There were roses and rose petals on the table and there was a singing chef.
“It was definitely the best date of my life. He is so romantic.”
Chelsea then spent three days at his villa. She said: “It was a beautiful villa but not over-the-top. Ricky is very down to earth and a real gentleman.
“We went out to Kaluna Beach Club and, wherever we went, he’d get stopped and asked for photos, which I found a bit crazy but he was always very happy to do so.
“I’d told family who I was dating and they filled me in on his history. I Googled him more when I got home.
“I found his humour attractive and his muscular arms and tattoos really attractive. I felt very at ease with him.”
When Chelsea returned to Scotland the pair kept in touch, exchanging dozens of texts and videos.
She said: “We would be talking all day — texting and sending videos. There was constant contact. He was always complimenting me, saying how beautiful my eyes were and so on.”
Ricky visited Chelsea in Glasgow in September when he was giving a talk on mental health for one of the charities he works with.
He suffered a harrowing breakdown following his defeats to legendary fighters Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao in the Noughties, later revealing he felt suicidal and was drinking too much.
Since then he has fought back to happiness and works with a string of organisations.
Chelsea added: “We went for drinks with some of his friends but he was always the one to say, ‘Let’s call it a night’.
“He’d drink but he was always considered about it. He was always very positive and never a show-off, but a very lovable person.”
‘Ricky had me laughing all night. I can’t say his dancing was as good as his karaoke. He sang Wonderwall by Oasis and he’s a really good singer.
Chelsea Claire
The warm-hearted boxer, a dad of three, gave Chelsea a black designer Balenciaga handbag worth more than £2,000 as a gift.
On another occasion, he asked her to pick out a sexy black dress.
She wore it when she walked the red carpet with Ricky at the Football For Change gala at Manchester United’s Old Trafford Stadium last November.
He even jokingly called her “wifey” among friends.
Chelsea said: “I never asked him for anything but he was very kind.
“I never met his children but I know what a great dad he is because he was always doing things with them. His friends said he’d met his match with me because I could come back to his humour quickly and we’d not stop laughing.
“In November he was talking about me spending Christmas with him.”
Looking back, Chelsea can now see where the problems in their relationship lay.
She added: “I’ve always been attracted to a more mature man but I don’t think Ricky could settle right now and I am ready for that.
“There were no hard feelings. It was really amicable.
“Never say never, but I think we just want different things.
“He needs to keep himself busy, which is why Dancing On Ice is so good.
“And I know he’s going to get better each week and work hard because he always does when he puts his mind to something.
“I have definitely shed tears about it, though.”
As Ricky now prepares to perform in Dancing On Ice’s skate-off after coming bottom of the leaderboard last Saturday with pro partner Robin Johnstone, Chelsea looks back fondly on being with the star at his home in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
‘I admired him’
Recalling the time they spent together there, she said: “He talked about how proud he was of his career and how he wanted to be a role model for others now.
“He has posters and medals in a games room, but he’s not a show- off. We watched his favourite programme, Only Fools And Horses, and I couldn’t miss the Reliant Regal he has outside his house.”
Ricky split from his partner of 11 years, Jennifer Dooley, in 2016.
He moved out of their home following a string of booze benders.
The pair have daughters Millie, 11, and Fearne, ten. Ricky also has a son, Campbell, 22, with ex-girlfriend, Claire Lord.
Chelsea last contacted Ricky, by text, last weekend to wish him luck with his Dancing On Ice debut.
He is competing for the trophy against celebrities including former Olympian Greg Rutherford, ex- Coronation Street actor Ryan Thomas and S Club singer Hannah Spearritt.
Chelsea said: “He’s been very busy with training but I think he’s doing well.”
After a low score of 12.5 out of 40, Ricky admitted he had not found learning to skate easy.
He said: “Never mind Bambi on ice — it was like a RoboCop gone wrong.”
During his boxing heyday Ricky thrilled as he won world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight, and he is one of Britain’s best-loved sportsmen.
His emphatic wins over Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo earned him a fight against pound-for-pound great Floyd Mayweather Jr in December 2007.
Thousands of British fans made their way to Las Vegas to watch their hero in action, and infamously “drank the Strip dry” during the weekend away in Sin City.
His only career losses — aside from an ill-fated 2012 comeback fight with Vyacheslav Senchenko — were against Mayweather and Pacquiao.
But it was those defeats which marked the start of his mental health struggles.
That saw Ricky turning to a psychiatrist for help, after being left suicidal in 2009.
In Sky documentary Hatton last year, he opened his heart about the ordeal.
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Chelsea said: “I only ever saw him being very positive. I admired him for opening up about his mental health because I struggled with my mental health in the past and it’s very, very hard.
“So coming out and being so open about it, and doing the documentary, is just amazing.”
