After claims last week that Christine McGuinness and Dan Osborne exchanged “flirty” messages as they “supported” one another amid their respective marital woes, a source now says mum-of-three Christine is “heartbroken” that her personal life is yet again being put through the wringer.
The Sun has claimed there was a “spark” between Christine and Dan, who are said to have been friends since 2019, but our source says that rumours of any romantic connection between the pair are simply not true.
“Christine and Dan both feel this has been blown out of proportion. Christine is heartbroken and in pain over the whole thing and can’t believe it’s being painted like this. They’ve been friends for years and have helped each other through tough times respectively, but that’s literally all it is.”
Dan is thought to have recently patched things up with his wife, Jacqueline Jossa, after they publicly confirmed a brief split earlier this year – sharing loved-up snaps from holidays abroad and more recently at a wedding with friends.
The couple, who share two children, have been married since 2017, but their relationship has been quite a rollercoaster – including rumours of infidelity on Dan’s part. And last week, their relationship was yet again thrust into the spotlight as a source claimed to The Sun that Dan, 33, had exchanged “flirty messages” with Christine, 37.
“Their friendship goes as far back as 2019, when Jacqueline was heading down under to the I’m A Celeb jungle and they had a brilliant night out at a fundraising gala in London. They stayed in touch sporadically and would bump into each other at events and their messages got pretty flirty,” The Sun’s source claimed.
They added, “Some were seen by mutual friends. She would call him ‘D’ in texts and it became an open secret among their circles. There is no suggestion anything sexual happened, but it’s fair to say that there was a spark between them.”
Christine split from her husband of 11 years, comedian and TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, back in 2023, with The Sun claiming she met Dan later that year at a London hotel – but that “nothing sexual” happened between them.
While she may be enjoying single life, Christine is still living with ex-husband Paddy in their shared Cheshire home, having previously revealed that the dynamic works best for their children, 11-year-old twins Leo and Penelope and daughter Felicity, eight, who are all autistic, as is the former Pilgrimage star herself.
Opening up on how Paddy, who the model met back in 2007, is and always will be a part of her family, whom she “loves”, Christine said recently, “I need a connection now – something different. I really, really, honestly, I love my family, and Patrick is part of my family and he always, always will be. But now for my next relationship, I want someone for me.”
The pair spend time in separate parts of their house, Christine revealed during an appearance on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast, to ensure their children have “continuity” while they are able to enjoy their own space. “We have different wings. I always joke about [that] he is in the West Wing. We completely have our own spaces on the top floor of the house. I’m on the floor with the children and yeah, it works for us because we don’t have to move the children.
“They’ve got that continuity and it’s consistent. When they come home from school, they know where they’re going to. They’ve got their own rooms, everything they need is in that house, and it doesn’t matter too much whether it’s Mummy at home or Daddy at home. With our schedules being all over the place, it doesn’t affect them.”
Explaining their decision to not tell the children about the split, Christine said last year, “The children are so young and they don’t understand relationships yet. I think if they did, we would have absolutely said, ‘Mummy and Daddy are really good friends and we’re still family forever and we absolutely love you and that will never change.’ But they don’t know any different and there are times when they see us when we’re in the house together and we’re chatting away and having a laugh and a cup of tea.”
Christine was due to appear in the new series of Celebs Go Dating, which is set to air later this year, but she pulled out of the show after saying it was “too soon” to be dating on a public platform and dealing with the attention that brings.
Now, our source claims that the reports surrounding Christine and Dan are exactly the kind of thing she was hoping to avoid by pulling out of the reality show. “This is totally what Christine didn’t want. It’s the reason she pulled out of Celebs Go Dating. She didn’t want the attention on her life or family and neither did Paddy. They want to protect their kids’ privacy,” our source said.With Dan and Jacqueline recently taking a trip abroad together to solidify their romance after their split, the source adds that Christine doesn’t want to get in the way of her pal’s marriage. “Christine certainly doesn’t want to look like she’s had anything to do with a married man, or with any problems between Dan and Jacqueline She would never want to wade into someone else’s relationship. It was only ever a friendship. Christine has a good heart and is really upset about all of this.”
