His family say the relationship is for real but gossips say it's a sham: So, is dancer Derek Hough really the right man for Cheryl Cole?

By Alison Boshoff



Real or fake? Cheryl Cole and Derek Hough take a stroll along the beach in South Africa, where the couple have been celebrating New Year


So, it appears to be official: Cheryl Cole is dating the dancer Derek Hough. They are currently enjoying their second holiday as a couple, and saw in the New Year together at a ­private party.

Since then they have been pictured ­strolling on the white sands at Camps Bay in South Africa - the closest they have ever come to looking romantic in public.

Since first being linked in February last year they have been very cautious about discussing the exact nature of their relationship.


Hough tends to say with a smile: ‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ if you ask him about Cheryl, and his family have been told to not speak on the subject.

Only last week Cheryl repeated her ­denials of any entanglement, telling TV chatshow host Alan Carr: ‘A lady doesn’t tell about these things.’

But friends including Strictly Come ­Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli and X Factor choreographer Brian Friedman have been saying for months that they are an item, and Hough’s ‘adoptive’ father Corky Ballas recently revealed on Twitter: ‘It’s no secret they are dating.’

Why, then, are they being so shy? Could it be that Cheryl is holding back for another reason? For it must be said that there is a strong waft of disbelief from doubters who question whether dancer Derek is, well . . . macho enough for Cheryl’s taste.

The suggestion has been made that their relationship is merely a ‘showbiz fauxmance’ one — an alleged affair conducted between friends that has the benefit of keeping them in the public eye and making both look more desirable.


Intimate: The pair were seen dancing at Preston Haskell's New Year's Eve party in Cape Town, South Africa


Animated: Cheryl and Derek chat on the dancefloor amid the revelry


The theory is that heartbroken Cheryl, 27, shows her ex-husband Ashley what he’s missing, while Derek, 25, gets to bolster his profile.

Certainly, suspicions have been rife in showbiz circles, led by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who always, cruelly, files stories about Hough under the heading ‘Gay, gay, gay’.

But, as we shall see, he’s not the only one who has voiced doubts over Hough’s sexual orientation - based, it seems, on not much more than the fact that he is handsome in a pretty way, and makes his living as a dancer.


So who is Derek Hough? And what more is there to him than perfect teeth and an impossibly toned physique?

Even the greatest matchmaker would concede that he is a most unlikely partner for pugnacious

Geordie Cheryl. He is a born-into-showbiz trouper, with an extraordinarily complicated family background. He’s also a Mormon.

Born on May 17, 1985, in Salt Lake City, Derek is the son of Bruce and Marianne Hough, who’d met on a college ballroom dancing team in Idaho. After having three girls - Marabeth, Sharee and Katherine - came Derek, and then the youngest, Julianne.

Marianne had ambitions to turn her brood onto a new version of the Osmonds, and says that for several years she spent more time in her van than at home, devotedly taking all five of them to music and dance classes.

By the time he was ten, Derek was progressing in competitions in New York and Los Angeles in the field of Latin American dance, cheered on by his family.

At this point, fate took a hand. Famous dance coaches Mark ‘Corky’ Ballas and his British wife Shirley - then based in Dulwich, South London - were on a teaching trip to Utah and saw Derek and his sister, Julianne.

They believed the Houghs were ‘incredibly talented children’ and offered coaching. At around this time, Bruce - now an elected member of Utah’s Republican National Committee - and Marianne Hough were separating. Derek asked Shirley Ballas if he could stay with her and study for a few months to escape the dramas at home.

Three months later, Julianne followed her brother across the Atlantic, and together with the Ballases’ son, Mark, they attended the famous Italia Conti Stage School in London.

Derek ended up staying with the family for almost a decade - although he remains on close terms with his own parents - leading Shirley Ballas to say that she regards him as her own flesh and blood.

‘Even though he is not my birth son, he feels as though he is my son. We love that boy so much - he really is a great kid.’

For her part, Ann Sherward, the principal of the Italia Conti, calls Derek ‘the most charismatic performer’ she has seen in 40 years at the school.


Tanned and toned: Derek showing off his incredible physique, and performing during National Dance Day


Certainly, his ballroom dancing was outstanding. Under Shirley’s wing he won all the major titles in the junior and youth divisions, travelling the world to do so.

After a variety of dancing roles on the West End stage, Derek got his first chance in television thanks to Bruno Tonioli, who asked him to work as a choreographer on the BBC show Dance X - and he proved a natural.


His sister, Julianne, meanwhile, was becoming well known in America thanks to Dancing With The Stars (the U.S. version of Strictly Come Dancing).

Derek soon joined her, alongside Mark Ballas. Derek and Mark, inseparable since they met as children, set up home together in Los Angeles.

They continue to compete against each other on Dancing With The Stars, which Derek has won three times. But brilliant though they are on the dance floor, their real desire was to be pop stars.

So Derek and Mark formed a group - the imaginatively titled Ballas Hough Band - but they were dropped by their record label after releasing just one flop single.

As for his personal life, since becoming a TV star Derek has had only one publicised relationship: with actress Shannon Elizabeth, his one-time dance partner on Dancing With The Stars - who was taller and 12 years older than him.

They lived together - not as a couple, but with Mark Ballas and two other friends, plus four dogs including Derek’s poodle, named Lady Dog-Ga.

The pair called it quits in August 2009 - Elizabeth apparently found the rumours that her boyfriend was gay very trying, and this seems to have been a factor, although she declined to comment yesterday.

Derek is not the only Hough family member blighted by such gossip - his sister, Julianne, is dating American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, a dapper individual who is close friends with Simon Cowell and has long resisted rumours that he is gay.

Indeed, Julianne told an interviewer that when she first met him, she thought he was gay, too.

Then just as Derek was struggling for his big break into the world of pop, along came Cheryl Cole. The pair were introduced by their mutual friend Bruno Tonioli, and Derek was hired to dance with her on the video for Parachute, her third solo ­single since taking a break from Girls Aloud

They had already filmed the video by the time lurid details of Ashley Cole’s infidelity were made public, and as Cheryl flew to Los Angeles to concentrate on her future, she called on Derek for a shoulder to ­cry on.

He took her out for sushi and then turned up at her hotel in a tight T-shirt, carrying a small dog. He was photographed leaving at 4.15am, fuelling rumours of a ‘secret’ fling.


Showmance? The pair have kept very quiet about the status of their relationship


A holiday in Tanzania followed in the summer (during which Cheryl, alas, caught malaria) and in the months since, there’s no doubt the couple have grown closer. But in what capacity?

Derek’s stepfather, Aaron Nelson, insists: ‘For Derek, this is true love. There is no doubt about it and it’s easy to see why - she is one hell of a girl. Very talented and incredibly beautiful. She is the girl of his dreams.’

Certainly, now that Cheryl has landed a job on X Factor USA, she will be free to spend more time with Derek. The plan seems to be that, for the time being, she will move into the house which Hough is renting on Mulholland Drive.

Let’s hope it’s big enough to accommodate her ever-present mum, Joan, and two Chihuahua dogs — but then, as Derek was brought up in a houseful of women and loves little dogs, he will no doubt feel at home.

As for the future, choreographer Brian Friedman says of the couple: ‘I’m very close to them both. They’re amazing people and make a great couple. They’re very, very cute together.’

And Bruno Tonioli says: ‘They complement each other perfectly - it’s a positive relationship.’

It’s no wonder everyone is so thrilled for Cheryl. Following the humiliation she suffered with

Ashley Cole and his pay-as-you-go phone habits, she deserves happiness.

But is Derek the right sort of man to mend her broken heart?



Source:Dailymail