Adam Peaty: has Olympian split from girlfriend - what happened with Katya Jones on Strictly Come Dancing?

Olympic swimmer and Strictly Come Dancing star Adam Peaty has announced on social media that he and partner of three years Eirianedd Munro have split up.

Peaty and Munro, who met on Tinder in early 2020, share their son George, who was born on 11 September 2020.

What has Adam Peaty said about the breakup?

It has been confirmed that Peaty and Munro have broken up through a post on the Olympic swimmer’s Instagram account.

Sharing a picture of the former couple and their son, George, Peaty wrote: “Eiri and I have decided to go our separate years.

“We have enjoyed a wonderful three years together, 2 of those with our gorgeous son George. Our priority has always been to provide the happiest and healthiest home environment for him, and right now that means ending our romantic relationship.

“I could not ask for a greater mother for George and I am so grateful to Eiri for her amazing support over the last three years.

“Eiri and George, I’m sorry for letting you down. My only interest is for the well-being of our family at this difficult time so I ask that our privacy is respected and I won’t be saying anything further.”

On her Instagram story, Munro also shared her own message about the breakup.

She posted: “Family, friends and followers: The last three years have been so, so amazing. Our little family has experienced so much laughter, love and joy. You guys have been such a significant part of that!

“This next chapter of my life is surely going to be an incredibly difficult one. I would appreciate that people would refrain from commenting, speculating or messaging. I have shared so much of my life, but for now I’m choosing privacy and I hope that you will all respect that.

“I love and appreciate you all so much and I’m so thankful for all the fun and opportunities you’ve given me.

“I am going to be taking a break from social media, so goodbye for now. Thank you so much for everything.”

What happened with Katya Jones on Strictly Come Dancing?

In 2021, Peaty competed in the 19th season of Strictly Come Dancing, where he was paired up with professional dancer Katya Jones.

He and Jones made it to week seven, placing ninth overall.

The two found themselves at the centre of a discussion of the “Strictly curse” after, in week four, the pair danced the Argentine Tango, which was ultimately their highest scoring dance at 32 points.

At the end of the dance, viewers claimed that it looked like Peaty had gone in to kiss Jones before stopping himself at the last second.

At the time, Peaty tweeted: “To everyone who wants to see what they want, your comments have real-life consequences.

“I will not be overcome or lowered by your gossip. Protect your energy.”

Speaking to the Times, Peaty said that he was “playing a character” and embracing the Latin persona.

He said: “I knew my role, I knew what I had to do. I was playing a character and I’m not going to do it half-heartedly.

“You have to play it as much as you can, get into it, enjoy it.”

In an interview with Zoe Ball on her Radio 2 Breakfast Show, Peaty also defended the routine and the alleged near kiss by saying that he and Jones were just trying to be “believable”.

He said: “It’s being believable, isn’t it? You don’t want to do a dance like that and not do it justice because you haven’t switched on right at the end.

“So it’s being believable, and that’s what I think some people get carried away with. But, hey ho, that’s life, isn’t it?”

Jones also added: “The choreographers who help us, because the judges kept saying we’re not connecting the emotion to the dance, there’s got to be more connection.

“So they were very specific about keeping the intensity throughout the entire dance and at the end just keeping that intensity. So we made them proud!”

What did Eiri Munro say about the moment on Strictly?

Munro initially responded to the moment by poking fun at it with a video on TikTok, which had the caption: “Watching your boyfriend almost kiss another woman live on TV.”

She then threw her head back dramatically and changed the caption to: “Finding out 10 million other people also watched it live.”

However, she later explained that the fall-out from the supposed near kiss had been “a lot”, and forced her to take a “break” from social media.

In a video shared at the time, Munro said: “I did take a little bit of a break, a little one.

“I wanted to say thank you to everyone, it actually makes me a bit emotional. To everyone that has been really nice to me because last week was a lot. I do want to say I appreciate people on here.

“Even if it’s thousands of nice comments and one mean one, it’s so easy to feel like the world is against you and it did feel like that for a while.”