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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.


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


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.


Together: The pair dance together during a performance of Cheryl's single Parachute


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.


Spotted: One of the first pictures of Derek at Cheryl's hotel last year


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.

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.


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.’

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?


Cheryl Cole-The Flood on the Royal Variety Live Peformance 2010


source: dailymail