Countdown's Rachel Riley has revealed that she and Strictly boyfriend Pasha Kovalev go on family holidays with their mothers, and whilst they can't communicate with each other because neither speak the same language, they seem to have bonded over something quite unique.
Talking about it on The Jonathan Ross Show, the former Strictly star said: "We've had them together on holiday and the mums just get together and they just look at cat videos on YouTube. The universal language of cat videos."
Despite not speaking Pasha's native language, Russian, the Oxford graduate is trying her best to learn it.
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"I am learning Russian, I'm doing it with an online app, it's really homemade with Clip Art from the nineties to explain stuff. It teaches you how kids learn. My spelling is absolutely appalling but you pick it up as you go. The first thing I learnt was [the Russian for] 'Give me a kiss' and then from the app you learn things like 'I open the window with a crowbar," the star told Jonathan.
She continued: "Pasha's friends are mostly Russian and they were brought up in Soviet Russia and now they’ve come to mostly the States. We go on holiday with them and his mum and his brother as well. The first time I met the boys, I spoke no Russian at all. It's really disconcerting, a bunch of thirty-something boys talking and giggling and drinking and I have no idea what they're talking about."
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Rachel and Pasha first met each other when they were partnered together on the BBC ballroom competition over five years ago for the 11th series. At the time, Rachel was in her first year of marriage to high school sweetheart Jamie Gilbert; the former couple announced their split in November 2013, following her appearance on the dancing show. Pasha and Rachel made their relationship official the following year.