The Hits Radio host and the Strictly Come Dancing star have opened up about their plans to tie the knot

Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez have admitted they wanted to get married ‘ages ago’ as they opened up about their plans to tie the knot.

The Hits Radio host and the professional dancer met on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, but they weren’t actually paired together, with Gemma dancing with pro Aljaz Skorjanec and Gorka competing with singer Alexandra Burke.

They both made the final but it wasn’t actually until after the series had come to an end, and after they’d bother appeared on the show’s live tour in early 2018 that love blossomed.

In the years that have followed, Gemma, 40, and Gorka, 35, have welcomed two children into the world – first child, daughter Mia, in 2019., followed by their second, son Thiago, in 2023.

The pair also got engaged in 2021, with Gorka popping the question on Valentine’s Day, but the lovebirds have previously said they’ haven’t been in a rush to tie the knot.

Speaking about their wedding plans in a new episode of their podcast, Lost in Translation, Gemma said: “We will get married. We wanted to get married ages ago, didn’t we?”

She went on: “Then Mia came along, bless her, and we said, we’ll do it when Mia’s old enough. She can be involved. We can get little floral dress and then Thiago came along and I just don’t want to have a wedding whereby we’ve got a two-year-old climbing up us because he’ll want to be with me.

“He’s a proper mummy’s boy isn’t he? He will want me to hold him and all this. We’ve seen venues in Spain. We spoke about doing it at a town hall in Manchester, which is lovely.”

Gorka then shared: “We also spoke about let’s just go and sign a document and let’s go home,” to which Gemma replied: “Yeah, I don’t want a big fuss. I’ve never ever wanted a big white wedding, ever. It’s never been on my radar.

“So we’ve said the two of us can just go, get it done and then just have a little party after for everyone. That’s what my sister did.” Gorka commented: “But also, we are quite lazy in that way… it has to be like now or not, you know.

They were then asked by a listener as to when they knew each other was ‘The One’ and it was then when spoke about planning for their two children.

“When did we know we were the one? I don’t know,” Gemma admitted to which Gorka joked: “Once she got pregnant.” Laughing, Gemma replied: “Yeah, once I got stuck with him!”

She then explained: “No, because even that we discussed beforehand… We didn’t just say, oh, we’re randomly having shock surprise baby. We planned both Mia and Tiago. We said, ‘Right from now, let’s try,’ because we wanted summer babies.

“So we were very lucky with in that aspect. But I think it was when we realised how… Because Gorka works away a lot and it’s something from day one in our relationship and they say when someone’s away from you, it’s either out of sight out of mind or it’s either absence makes the heart grow fonder.

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“I think for the first time, definitely in my life anyway, it was absence makes the heart grow fonder.”