Page 34

Dahlia and I have both traveled a lot, but it is becoming less and less for both of us. I am getting too old to race, so I have chosen to retire as a champion. I currently hold the Olympic, World and European Golds, but I won’t be defending them.

Andy and I have been working hard on a training academy and developing a youth program to support the next generation of young girls- track athletes, just like me who have talent, but no funding to take their athletic career to the next level.

I feel excited about it, and it keeps me grounded. It is easy to forget where I came from sometimes when I am around Dahlia’s lifestyle for too long. And if she has too much time in England, she gets the rain blues as she calls them and will jet off to Texas for a taste of the sun.

All in all, we are not perfect.

But we are honest, happy, open and in love.

We speak often about the future, about settling down properly in a forever home that will likely be somewhere in the US.

For now and for the rest of Grandmama’s life, our home is in London. We have a beautiful town house in Kensington with an incredible roof terrace. I like to run in Hyde Park every morning.

We are getting a dog now I’m not travelling any more. I have always loved dogs, but just wanted to be able to give a dog a lovely home and I know I can do that now.

Dahlia wondered if we might get a perfectly coiffed pedigree dog, but that isn’t what I want and she is happy to indulge me. I am scouring dog rescue places for a big cuddly bear of a dog that needs a loving home. I will take our dog everywhere with me and I can’t wait.

We both have our passions in life that we still follow, although Dahlia is much more choosy about projects that she will take on, now. She will only act in something if she really believes in it and in the director. It has given her much more interesting roles and I love watching what it has brought out in her on the screen.

She obviously still has her Dahlia Dante magic. Her star quality is shining brighter than it ever has and the roles she is offered are bigger than ever.

Whether it is through love or through having Giselle as her agent instead of Mr Suit, who knows?

When we are alone together, we still have that magic. We still fit together effortlessly and comfortably in a way I have never felt with anyone and I know unequivocally that she is mine. I mean ‘mine’ in a possessive sense, but I will never try to cage her free spirit.

When I look at her sleeping form in crisp white sheets as the morning light creeps through our big bay windows, I feel infinite tenderness for her.

This is what our love looks like and I can’t imagine anything better.