DANCING On Ice star Dan Edgar admits he has no problem seeing old flame Kate Ferdinand — but fears he and her hubby Rio may clash over football team rivalry.
The Towie star is competing against Rio’s brother Anton on the ITV show — and Kate has been in the audience with her hubby supporting the former West Ham United player.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday, Dan has revealed how his mum Wendy is still in touch with all of his one-time girlfriends — including Kate.
And he has told how he has now reunited with one of his ex- girlfriends, Towie co-star Ella Rae Wise, after they split last October.
Dan said: “Mum saw Kate and Rio in the crowd at Dancing On Ice last weekend and said hello to her.
“I think Mum still gets on well with her. She said Kate sent her a really lovely message after, too.
“My mum’s still best mates with all of my ex-girlfriends. I think she takes their side over mine most of the time.
“If Kate and I were to cross paths I’d say hello. There’s no bad blood there. We just haven’t spoken for a very long time, since we split.”
Laughing, he added: “The only issue I’d ever have with Anton or with Rio would be because I’m a Tottenham fan and they’re West Ham.”
Kate, 33, first joined Towie as Dan’s girlfriend in 2015, and their on-off relationship ended two years later after a series of rows.
Shortly after, Dan admitted it felt like they had “been married 30 years and were annoying each other”.
He recalls: “By the time we’d come to the end we were just going round in circles.
‘Marriage is not high on my list’
“I don’t think things ended in an overly bad way. I just look back now and think I was in such a different stage of my life.”
Dan was also accused of cheating on her after kissing fellow co-star Chloe Lewis.
He says: “I get easily labelled as a cheat and that’s frustrating because that wasn’t the case with me and Kate back then.
“I’ve made some stupid mistakes in the past but we weren’t together at the time I kissed Chloe.
“I wasn’t emotionally mature enough back then to deal with a relationship of that longevity. It was young love.
“Our lives have gone in completely different directions. I just look back at it now as a period of my life and all part of my journey.”
But Dan says that he is now looking to settle down and have children — just as Kate has.
She married England soccer ace Rio, 46, in 2019 and they have two children, Cree, four, and Shae, one, together.
Kate also has teenage stepchildren Lorenz, Tate and Tia, from Rio’s previous marriage to Rebecca Ellison, who died of cancer in 2015.
And 34-year-old Dan, who also dated Towie star Amber Turner for six years until they split in 2023, is now back with Ella Rae, 24.
He says: “We’re seeing how things go. There’s this real chemistry between us.
“There’s been this misconception over the years that I just never want to settle down, that I just want to party and I’ve got commitment issues.
“In actual fact I’ve been through a lot of long-term relationships. I’m just cautious because I know how hard it is if you split up.
“With every new relationship I think, ‘God, I don’t want to go through that again’ so it makes things hard.
“It 100 per cent affects how you feel going into a new relationship when you take things from past ones.
“I’m very much at a point in my life where I’m thinking, ‘If I meet the right person and it’s going to plan, and I see that person as the potential mother of my kids, then I would go down that road’.
“I would never have kids for the sake of it with the wrong person, though.”
But after his parents split when he was younger, Dan says he doesn’t prioritise marriage.
He says: “I’m not saying marriage would never happen but I’ve seen it not work for a lot of people including my own parents.
“Their divorce didn’t affect me. Both of them are with other people and I have this incredible, huge family. But marriage is definitely not high on my list.”
“I’m no John Travolta — never out there in the middle of the dance floor throwing moves.”
Winning Dancing On Ice is hopefully on the agenda.
Dan will be performing to Ed Sheeran’s song Bad Habits with 37-year-old Canadian skater Vanessa James on tonight’s ITV show at 6.30pm.
He admits doing live TV is a far greater challenge than his decade-long stint on the hit reality series.
“It’s the most out of my comfort zone I’ve ever been,” he says with a smile.
“There are pressures because it’s a massive show and it’s a rollercoaster but I’ve loved every minute of it since day one.
“On Towie I’m just having a laugh with my mates most of the time — and it’s not live TV.
“I’m a terrible dancer and not a performer in normal life. I’ll give it a two-step max in a nightclub, if you know what I mean.
“I’m no John Travolta — never out there in the middle of the dance floor throwing moves.”
Former Dancing On Ice runner-up and Towie star Joey Essex is one of his closest pals, alongside co-stars including James “Diags” Bennewith.
Dan says: “I think a lot of the boys will have a right laugh come Sunday, not just with the dancing but with all the sequins and sparkles and the see-through vests.”
He jokes that the two-hour daily training sessions he has been doing since October has been like a “Dancing On Ice detox”.
‘Knocked partying on the head’
He says: “It’s made me clean up my lifestyle a bit without even thinking about it. I’ve knocked the partying on the head.
“I’ll have a Peroni or two but no mad nights out. I used to stay up until way past midnight and now I’m asleep by 11pm so my routine has got a lot better.
“My legs have got a lot stronger, too — my calves and quads feel bigger so it’s been a good training plan for me.”
Since working with a trainer prior to Dancing On Ice, he has been a fan of intermittent fasting.
He admits: “I won’t eat until maybe 2pm or three some days and I’ll often have a six-egg omelette.”
The social media star grew up in Woodford Green, East London with mum Wendy and former estate agent director dad Dave. They divorced when he was eight.
Aged 12, he moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk with Wendy and sister Samantha, 31, while his dad lived in Herts, with his second wife Debbie.
Both parents now have other partners and Dan loves his extended family.
As well as his sister he has a half-sister, Ellie, 21, and a half-brother James, 19, from his mum’s second marriage to partner Rob.
Rob also has four children from a previous relationship.
Dan started working at 15 as a dishwasher stacker and by 17 was on an apprenticeship to be an electrician with a London-based firm.
He says: “It was a mad coincidence but I ended up meeting my best mate Jamie on a building site. We were apprentices together and he went to school with Joey Essex and Diags and that’s how we all met.
“He was the bridge for me and the whole Towie journey I went on.
“I was up early doors, sometimes 5am. I went to a lot of building sites in London, crawling through lofts and dirty houses. I’m glad I experienced it. It was hard graft.”
Ahead of his first performance he has just had his first ever spray tan.
He says: “I was told by make-up I really should have one. I’m standing there this week with a fake bake and this stupid little hat on thinking, ‘What am I doing?’. I know I’m from Essex but I’ve never had one.
“I’ve never had Botox or anything else. The tan is my only Dancing On Ice beauty preparation.”
