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‘Curse of Strictly’ star Kristana Rihanoff – still reeling from her split from Ben Cohen – today faces a new blow: the yoga business they co-founded is almost £500,000 in the red.
The former professional ballroom dancer today published two years of accounts which show that the financial problems blamed for their high-profile split have not abated.
The company is now £489,470 in the red with the bulk of the cash being owed to unspecified creditors.
Kristina, who signed off the paperwork, remains a director while Cohen stood down in September last year, records show.
The new figures were released just three months after the Russian dancer’s separation from former England rugby star Cohen, the father of her eight-year-old daughter.
The former couple, who have been open about their money struggles in the past, met on the 2013 series of Strictly Come Dancing when the World Cup winner was still married to wife Abby, with whom he shares 16-year-old twin daughters.
Rihanoff, 47, and Cohen, 46, who were together for 12 years, experienced severe financial struggles after the yoga business struggled during Covid.
They split in March saying they planned ‘to go forward as separate individuals’ but three months on they remain in the same property as they can’t afford to live apart.
Kristina Rihanoff and Ben Cohen are pictured together in July 2023
Soo Yoga Group is now £489,470 in the red with the bulk of the cash being owed to unspecified creditors
They started Soo Yoga Group together in June 2017 – four years after falling for each other after they partnered on the 11th series of Strictly (seen on Strictly in 2013)
The pair plunged all their money into the project but were left with crippling debts, reportedly totalling around the £1million mark, after the pandemic struck just nine months after launching, forcing them to close their Northampton-based studio.
Last month it was reported they were ‘facing a major dispute with creditors and the government’ over their financial troubles.
Accounts for the last two years have just been published after the company was threatened with being struck off by Companies House.
The report said that Kristina intended to keep the company going despite the huge shortfall and would support the business with her own funds.
It said: ‘The directors have agreed to support the company for the foreseeable future and are therefore of the opinion that it is appropriate for the financial statements to be prepared on a going concern basis.’
The company, Soo Yoga Group Ltd, owes £440,357 to creditors and almost £50,000 in bank loans.
The couple still share equal control through their ownership of shares.
The couple met in one of the most famous examples of the so-called ‘curse of Strictly’ as it would emerge that Ben’s marriage to Abby had broken up soon after the show aired – though Ben would date others before forming a relationship with Kristina.
Russian-born Kristina – who left Strictly in 2015 before giving birth to their daughter Mila the following year – had worked hard to retrain as a yoga instructor
Pictured: The couple’s five-bedroom home in Sywell, Northamptonshire which was bought in 2016
Kristina had previously been rumoured to have been romantically linked to her partner in the 2009 show, boxer Joe Calzaghe.
The extent of their struggles were laid bare in unusual circumstances – during a court appearance last September when Kristina was caught driving without insurance.
Former rugby star Cohen, who won 57 England caps, opened up about the pair’s money woes in September last year while giving evidence in the case in which Kristina unsuccessfully appealed a driving ban.
He said: ‘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.’
Rihanoff, sobbed throughout the hearing, telling the court it would be financially devastating if she was disqualified as she needed to drive to judge ballroom competitions across the country, which earn her around £2,000 a month.
He and Rihanoff also addressed their worrying money problems in 2021, admitting the stress of their failing business sparked bouts of depression
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 – and hoped to emulate the success of the David Lloyd health franchise.
Former rugby star Cohen, who won 57 England caps, opened up about the pair’s money woes in September last year
The former Strictly Come Dancing star, 47, and the ex-rugby player, 46, became the latest stars to be hit by the infamous ‘Strictly curse’ after their 12-year romance ended
The former couple were forced to put their £1.75million five-bedroom home in Sywell, Northamptonshire, where they had lived since 2016, on the market and Cohen had few sources of income beyond his annual topless calendars of himself.
Speaking to MailOnline after the court case, Rihanoff said: ‘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.’
Cohen added the business ‘had not earned a penny’ in lockdown, where they were forced to base their classes outside while they were unable to use their yoga studio.
Rihanoff retrained as a yoga instructor after quitting Strictly in 2013.
Their studio offered dance, meditation and pilates classes while Cohen taught high intensity training.
The company has long been in debt but friends had hoped that after separating they might have found a way to rearrange their finances to get back towards solvency but today’s news shows that hasn’t happened.
