Kristina Rihanoff looked downcast as she emerged for the first time in public on Sunday after splitting from Ben Cohen.

Ben, 46, and Kristina, 47, became the latest stars to be hit by the infamous ‘Strictly curse’ after their 12-year romance ended in heartbreak. 

The heartbroken professional dancer went makeup free for the outing just days after her split was revealed.

MailOnline was told that it was the severe financial difficulties they had recently experienced are believed to have been behind their split.

The extent of the couple’s struggles were laid bare in unusual circumstances – during a court appearance last September when Kristina was caught driving without insurance.

Giving evidence during the case, England World Cup winning rugby star Ben admitted he had bungled the handling of their car insurance policy and told how he was ‘fighting to save his relationship and home’.

Kristina Rihanoff, 47, looked downcast as she emerged for the first time in public on Sunday after splitting from Ben Cohen, 46

Ben and Kristina became the latest stars to be hit by the infamous ‘Strictly curse’ after their 12-year romance ended in heartbreak

The heartbroken professional dancer went makeup free for the outing just days after her split was revealed

A friend of the couple told us: ‘The past six months have been hell for them and it has torn the love they had apart. For the sake of their family, they have chosen to go forward as separate individuals.

‘Those close to them who know them as a couple had hoped they would be able to work things out but for now it’s over and it looks like there’s no going back.’

The couple were left with crippling debts after they ploughed every penny they had into a yoga studio which plunged into crisis during the Covid pandemic.

According to The Sun, the couple are now left with a crippling £1million debt.

In a tortuously frank admission Cohen told the court: ‘I get up every day and I fight not to lose everything – to lose my cars and my house and my relationship. I’m so overdrawn.’

When questioned about the strains on his and Rihanoff’s relationship, he said: ‘We’re still living together. We’re in it financially.

‘We’re in business together so the problem is that we opened the business before Covid and we got the worst severities of it and in all honestly this is just another problem for me to deal with.

‘I’ve got credit cards that are overdrawn. I’m overdrawn in both accounts. We have got a business debt because of Covid. It’s just another problem.’

MailOnline was told that it was the severe financial difficulties they had recently experienced are believed to have been behind their split

The extent of the couple’s struggles were laid bare in unusual circumstances – during a court appearance last September when Kristina was caught driving without insurance

Kristina cut a casual look in an all black ensemble as she left the car park

The dancer was seen leaving her yoga studios early Sunday morning

She attempted to keep a low profile as she headed back to her car

MailOnline was given an insight into the struggles during an interview with the couple in May 2021.

They started Soo Yoga Group together in June 2017 – four years after falling for each other when they partnered on the 11th series of the hit BBC show.

Companies House records showed that the Soo Yoga Group Ltd was £488,470 in the red in its last submitted set of accounts for the year ending on July 31, 2022.

The company was facing being struck off and Cohen has since resigned as a director leaving Rihanoff as its sole director – while other companies linked to the couple were also in difficulties.

It was not long before the couple had put their £1.75million five-bedroom home in Sywell, Northamptonshire, where they had lived since 2016 on the market.

Cohen resorted to selling topless pH๏τos of himself in a bid to raise some much needed cash.

Ahead of the new year, he created a calendar with 1,000 personally signed editions selling at £32.95 a time in the hope of raking in £33,000.

The couple revealed the irony of how they set off full of hope on a project to improve health and wellbeing only to be plunged into a crisis which left them facing losing everything and damaging their mental health.

The couple were left with crippling debts after they ploughed every penny they had into a yoga studio which plunged into crisis during the Covid pandemic (pictured April 2024)

The couple pictured on Strictly in 2013

Russian-born Rihanoff – who left Strictly in 2015 before giving birth to their daughter Mila the following year – had worked hard to retrain as a yoga instructor.

But the couple were forced to close their seven-studio yoga centre when the pandemic struck just nine months after opening.

The studio offered dance, meditation and pilates classes while Cohen taught high intensity training.

Rihanoff told MailOnline: ‘The company is a new company we’d just set it up. We invested everything we’ve ever had.

‘It was awful. I put everything into it and you don’t even have a chance to develop the business.

‘We opened in August after the first lockdown and had a huge spike. It’s a family orientated centre. Then November lockdown, December it was awful because we didn’t know the end of it. It was forever and ever and ever. Fingers crossed we can go back to normality soon.’

She spoke of struggles with depression which has ‘skyrocketed through the lockdowns’ and admitted they struggled.

At that point the couple were able to temporarily run outdoor classes on tennis courts in Northampton but told of their plans to expand the business into a nationwide venture – hoping to emule the success of David Lloyd’s sports club empire.

Ben left his wife of 11 years Abby (pictured with her now partner David Warner) for his Strictly partner Kristina, after being partnered up with the blonde bombshell 

Read More Strictly’s Kristina Rihanoff breaks social media silence after split from Ben Cohen

Cohen said: ‘Yes it’s great being outside and doing stuff but it shouldn’t be at that point – we haven’t earned a penny.’

Cohen told how it was ‘tough to run a business’ but said of his hopes: ‘Essentially we want to do what David Lloyd did. Everyone thought he was crazy. David has been helping us with this too. We want to grow this across the country.’

The couple appeared to be back on track after getting engaged on a sun-kissed beach in the Maldives in 2022 and told of their hopes of tying the knot in Tuscany or Oxfordshire.

Ben told Hello! Magazine in 2023: ‘Over the last nine years we’ve been through the wringer.

‘To support each other through difficult times in business is the ultimate test in a relationship.

‘I’ve watched her flourish, from her becoming a mum to growing as a businesswoman, and it has strengthened our bond.’

But their ongoing struggles were revealed when Rihanoff, who worked on Strictly between 2008 and 2013, appeared at Northampton Crown Court to unsuccessfully appeal a sentence for driving without insurance.

Sobbing throughout the hearing, she told the court it would be financially devastating if she was disqualified.

She said she needed to drive to judge ballroom compeтιтions across the country, which earn her around £2,000 a month, and to take Mila to school.

MailOnline later revealed the couple’s yoga company had plunged almost £500,000 in debt.