Jamie Borthwick shuts down Tasha Ghouri romance rumors after Strictly tour buzz

Jamie Borthwick addresses the rumor mill

Another week, another Strictly “curse” headline. This time, it landed on EastEnders mainstay Jamie Borthwick, who’s been linked online to fellow tour performer Tasha Ghouri. He’s not having it. Speaking to The Mirror, the actor said the whispers are wide of the mark. “I laugh. We both laugh. You guys have provided us with entertainment. Tasha is my sister... We’re like siblings.” Short, sharp, and designed to stop the speculation cold.

The chatter didn’t appear out of thin air. It followed reports that Tasha Ghouri and Andrew Le Page—who met on Love Island in 2022 and reached the final—have ended their two-and-a-half-year relationship. The Sun framed Tasha’s Strictly schedule as the turning point, with long rehearsal days and the show’s demands pulling focus away from her personal life.

An unnamed source told the paper that Ghouri poured everything into the show alongside pro partner Aljaž Škorjanec before Christmas. As rehearsals, live shows, and media duties stacked up, “the cracks started to show,” the source claimed. Those comments hit just as the Strictly Live tour rolled into arenas across the UK—a perfect storm for gossip to pick up speed.

Then came the Instagram fuel: warm, backstage-style selfies of Tasha and Jamie that fans read as more than friendly. From there, the narrative wrote itself—two attractive performers, a breakup in the background, and the show’s traveling bubble. Social media did the rest. Within days, timelines were full of questions about whether a new romance had quietly begun on the bus between venues.

Borthwick’s response is a reset. He didn’t hedge or tease. He used humor, kept it light, and set a clear boundary: he and Tasha are close—but not like that. It’s the kind of answer that tries to drain the oxygen from a story that only needs a single coy emoji to blow up again.

The ‘Strictly curse’ returns—why it sticks, and why it sells

The phrase “Strictly curse” has become a tabloid shortcut for messy timelines, mid-series splits, and chemistry that looks a little too real under studio lights. The pattern is well-known: long hours, high-pressure routines, physical closeness, and a shared goal. People bond. Sometimes relationships outside the ballroom don’t survive that intensity. Sometimes rumors are just rumors.

It’s not hard to see why the idea sticks. The show demands total commitment—daily rehearsals, late-night run-throughs, and big emotional arcs crafted for TV. If your partner isn’t in that world, it can feel like you’re living in different time zones. For contestants, the tour magnifies that effect. You’re miles from home, shuttling between cities, and your closest support network is the cast and crew you see all day.

That setup also supercharges social media moments. A candid dressing-room snap reads as intimate, even if it’s just two colleagues killing time before a soundcheck. Add a recent breakup to the timeline, and the audience fills in the blanks. That’s how a friendship becomes a trending “soft launch” in a matter of hours.

To understand why this particular pairing spiked, it helps to know who’s involved. Borthwick has grown up on EastEnders, playing Jay Brown since his teens. Viewers watched him deal with grief, marriage, and everything in between on the soap. He’s familiar, steady, and—crucially—in the BBC ecosystem, which overlaps with Strictly’s fan base.

Tasha Ghouri brings a different audience. She was a finalist on Love Island 2022 and stood out as the show’s first deaf contestant, openly discussing her cochlear implant and her push for better accessibility in fashion and entertainment. Since then, she’s built a brand around dance, style, and advocacy. Strictly put the performance side of her profile front and center. Fans used to seeing her in polished shoots suddenly watched the grind of rehearsals and live routines up close.

Back to the breakup. Reports suggested Tasha and Andrew discussed calling it quits in early January, with her heading into the tour as a single woman. Neither has offered a blow-by-blow of the decision. And despite the noise, Andrew hasn’t publicly weighed in on the Borthwick rumors, which—if anything—signals a choice to keep this private.

From a PR perspective, Borthwick’s framing—“sibling energy”—is smart. It’s specific enough to puncture the romance narrative, but not defensive. It leaves room for both to keep posting from the tour without going dark on fans, which can look like an admission of something to hide. In the attention economy, clarity helps.

Fans, for their part, seem split between two camps: the ones who ship every onstage pairing and the ones who roll their eyes and ask everyone to let them work. The supportive comments under their posts show both. You’ll see heart emojis and “you two are adorable” stacked next to “they’re friends, leave them be.” The volume is high, but the tone isn’t hostile.

It also speaks to how Strictly blurs lines by design. On TV, chemistry is currency. On tour, camaraderie is survival—hours on coaches, shared dressing rooms, and repeated routines in new arenas. That closeness reads as romance from the outside. Inside the bubble, it often feels more like family.

What’s next? The tour keeps moving city to city. The cast will keep sharing behind-the-scenes snippets. And, unless a plot twist lands, this story will cool as fast as it heated up. The internet has a short memory when the people at the center are aligned and unbothered. Right now, that’s exactly what Borthwick and Ghouri look like.

So, the scoreboard today: rumor swirling, denial delivered, and a reminder that not every backstage selfie is a soft launch. For Strictly watchers trained to spot sparks, it’s worth remembering that friendship—and yes, sibling energy—is often the headline that doesn’t make the front page.