My unpleasant encounter with Kristina Rihanoff and Ben Cohen during Strictly scandal exposed their arrogance – and I can’t feel sorry for them now they’ve fallen, writes KATIE HIND

Kristina Rihanoff looked stunning in a glittering ball gown as she hosted a lavish party at a Mayfair hotel with her Strictly Come Dancing partner Ben Cohen.

She enjoyed the moment as she handed out expensive cocktails to friends and members of her PR team, who had helped out earlier that evening with a gala event for her children’s charity, The Dot Com Foundation, at the prestigious Mansion House in the City of London.

The after-gala party was a no-nonsense affair, with the drinks flowing until the early hours, as was the lively conversation between her famous friends, including Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley.

The venue was the same rooftop room at the Sanctum Hotel where I had met Meghan Markle a year earlier. The intimate venue was not cheap and the bill would have been substantial.

It was 2014 and Kristina, who was then still starring in Strictly, had booked a suite at the hotel, for which she didn’t get much in return, of the £1,000 a night.

Interestingly, Ben—who was married to his now ex-wife Abby at the time—was by her side, despite both publicly insisting they weren’t in a relationship. They seemed extremely pleased with themselves, perhaps because they secretly knew that Ben would release a statement the next day announcing his split from Abby, the mother of his two daughters.

It’s been ten years since Kristina’s big night. It was a memorable night for me too, thanks to a meeting with Ben, as I’ll explain later.

And what a difference a decade makes. Because today, things look very different for the couple who began their romance after being paired on Strictly in 2013. Few have become more synonymous with the infamous Strictly curse, the cause of so many tears, tantrums, broken marriages and unfulfilled dreams.

On Friday, Northampton Crown Court heard how Kristina and her ex-rugby player fiancé are ‘fighting not to lose everything’ to crippling debt. She described in court how they are trying to ‘save’ their relationship amid financial troubles.

Kristina tried (unsuccessfully) to appeal against a driving ban after she was caught driving her £30,000 Audi Q3 without insurance in April. In June, she was given six penalty points on her licence and ordered to pay almost £900 in fines and costs.

The extraordinary story of her romantic and financial troubles came to light when the couple desperately demanded that Kristina be allowed to keep her driving licence, which she risked losing because she already had six penalty points.

Ben, testifying for the Russian-born dancer, 46, who is now a yoga teacher, told the court the couple had set up multiple businesses, including a yoga studio, which lost customers during the pandemic.

In an emotional statement, the 45-year-old former England winger said: “I get up every day and fight not to lose everything – my cars, my house, my relationship.”

Asked about the strains in their relationship, Ben added: ‘We still live together. We’re in it financially. We’re in business together, so the problem is we opened the business before Covid and we got into the worst of the problems.

“Honestly, this is just another issue that I’m dealing with. I have overdrawn credit cards. I’m overdrawn on both bank accounts. We have business debt because of Covid. It’s just another issue.”

Kristina, who is known as a down-to-earth member of the Strictly cast, cried throughout the hearing and at one point had to leave the courtroom with her hands over her mouth because she ‘felt sick’.

She spent the rest of the session wrapped in a white blanket, with a handkerchief over her eyes.

I imagine there will be few people lining up to offer the pair much sympathy.

The truth is that they did indeed seem to have become very arrogant due to the amount of fame and money they had at the time. This was all too evident during my chance meeting with Ben and Kristina at the Sanctum Hotel that evening.

I stayed there for a few nights before moving to Los Angeles for work.

Coincidentally, I had written a story about Kristina and Ben a few days earlier, after they were photographed on a London Underground train in June 2014 – six months after their Strictly Come Dancing appearance had ended.

For weeks, rumors of their affair had been growing, but they insisted they were not in a relationship. They had instructed their publicists to tell the newspapers that any such claims were false.

However, photos of the pair told a different story. They showed them cosying up on the tube at 9pm after Kristina had attended a meeting at the House of Commons. Fellow passengers spotted Ben putting his arm around the Russian dancer as they chatted.

There was little they could do about the photos. But as I sat with the couple in that hotel bar that night, Ben clearly felt he could do something about me.

I was already in the room drinking with friends when

Kristina’s party had arrived. I had chosen to stay at the hotel because the owner, Mark Fuller, is a friend of mine.

A member of Kristina’s party pointed me to Ben. He came over, wanted to talk to me for a moment, and led me away, protesting the article.

In a dark corner, out of sight of everyone at the party, he yelled at me and told me that I had “upset his children and ruined their lives.” He then told me that he was going to have me thrown out of the hotel. I explained that I was a guest, but he didn’t care.

He and Kristina – presumably capitalizing on their fifteen minutes of fame – asked owner Mark Fuller to let me leave.

Mark, a fixture on the Mayfair nightclub scene, was completely distraught and told me he was worried they wouldn’t pay the bill for their extravagant party if I didn’t.

So he suggested that my friends and I go to my room with a bottle of champagne, which I immediately agreed to. I didn’t want him to lose thousands of pounds.

Later my then boss complained to the BBC, who brought in Kristina to accuse her of her behaviour.

Three years later, she left the show as a professional dancer, to the relief of some of her bosses. She had already been embroiled in another Strictly controversy when she began dating her 2009 partner, boxer Joe Calzaghe, despite him being in a five-year relationship with glamour model Jo-Emma Larvin at the time.

As for Kristina’s romance with Ben, the day after I met him, Ben released a statement admitting that his 11-year marriage to the loyal Abby was over.

When I landed in LA, I saw the announcement: ‘Ben and Abby Cohen have decided to take a break to resolve some marital issues, but they remain fully committed to the well-being of their children.

“There is no third party involved and Ben and Abby now ask that their privacy and that of their family be respected during this difficult time.”

He and Kristina later had a baby girl named Milena, who is now eight. They also had a lucrative deal with Hello! Magazine, which chronicled milestones in their lives, including their 2022 engagement.

Since then, the duo has disappeared into show business oblivion.

I wonder if they remember that night at the Sanctum Hotel as vividly as I do. Or maybe they were just too drunk on fame?