Strictly Come Dancing star Alexandra Burke branded a ‘homewrecker’ by furious mum after ‘singer’s affair with married dad’
STRICTLY star Alexandra Burke is getting a taste of her own medicine after it emerged ballroom rival Gemma Atkinson had waltzed off with her partner.
Ambitious Alexandra, 29, is said to fear Gemma’s growing romance with Gorka Marquez, 27, will hurt her chances of winning the BBC1 show.
But we can reveal the former X Factor winner was accused of stealing another woman’s man.
Alexandra, now dating Josh Ginnelly, was branded a homewrecker after she had an affair with married dad Russell Brooks in 2008.
Web designer Russell, who was living with wife Tracie and their daughter in Bromley, South London, managed to keep his lover’s identity a secret at first.
But after he and Tracie split, she claims he confessed to a fling with the singer, then 20.
And a Strictly source said: “Alexandra is really unhappy that Gemma has gone off with Gorka and she has made her feelings clear.
“He has done his best to reassure her their romance won’t affect her chances of winning, but so far she just doesn’t seem to be buying that.
“She is fiercely competitive and doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her success.
“There are those here who understand her concerns, but there are others who think she can’t complain given what she has done in the past.
“Stealing someone’s husband is a lot worse than dating another woman’s dance partner.”
According to Tracie, who married Russell in 2002, the singer met him in 2007 when he was still living with her and their three-year-old daughter.
Within weeks she says the lovers started to exchange texts and phone calls.
And while he denied there was someone else, she was suspicious.
Speaking in 2008, Tracie said: “Russell and I had been married for five years when I began to feel there was someone else.
“He denied it but our relationship became really strained and I felt like he was losing interest in us.
“We argued about it and I asked him again and again to decide whether he wanted to stay, but he always seemed torn.
“It wasn’t until after we’d finally split for good that he admitted he’d been seeing someone all along. I was really shocked.”
Not long after the split, Russell changed his Facebook status to “in a relationship”.
Meanwhile, Alexandra immediately began posting loved-up snaps of them online, captioned: “Love you bubba” and “I love you baby”.
But Tracie, who blocked her estranged husband on social media, only found out who his lover was after a friend saw Alexandra on X Factor.
She said: “I phoned to ask him about it but he said that I shouldn’t be angry because it didn’t affect me any more. I wanted to erase him from my life.
“I couldn’t bear to think about him. The thought of him and another woman together, the woman I believe he’d left me for, was disgusting.”
Alexandra insisted at the time that she and Russell had only got together in March 2008 after his marriage to Tracie had already broken down.
And an X Factor spokesman went on to say she and Russell had split up in September that year.
But Tracie added: “I’m told Alexandra comes across as a sexy but sweet girl. Obviously this is not true.
“As far as I’m concerned she must have known Russell was married. There’s nothing sweet about that.”
Alexandra went on to win the X Factor in 2008. And she is now the second favourite to lift the Strictly glitterball trophy, with odds of 3/1.
Saturday’s show saw her perform an American Smooth to Wouldn’t It Be Loverly from musical My Fair Lady, with Spanish pro Gorka.
Meanwhile Gemma and her partner Aljaz Skorjanec danced an energetic Charleston to The Bare Necessities from Disney’s The Jungle Book.
