Strictly Come Dancing's Gorka Márquez took to social media earlier today to share a heartfelt family update. The professional dancer has been a key member of the Strictly cast since he joined the show in 2016.
He is engaged to Gemma Atkinson and the couple share two children, Mia and Thiago. The couple regularly share insights into their life away from the spotlight on social media.
In a recent post, Gorka shared a heartwarming video as he played with his two young children in a swimming pool on holiday. He expressed his disbelief about how they are growing up "too fast."
The 34-year-old captioned the post: "Time goes too fast. I can't believe they are gonna be six and two this month… [red love heart emoji] Someone once said time is the most expensive currency we have so let's use it wisely…"
Gemma Atkinson commented with red love heart emojis while several fans rushed to the comments to resonate with the star. One user named Shona said: "How is Thiago going to be 2 already?? That's gone so fast! My eldest is off to Uni this year & my youngest is going to secondary school."
A fan called Lucy wrote: "Beautiful, happy times! Hold on to all the little moments" and Tina added: "They grow up to fast I wish my kids were little again so I could do it all over again." Joanne wrote: "Well said @gorka_marquez soak up every minute! Beautiful family."
In 2017, Gorka met his future wife Gemma on the hit BBC dancing show. They got engaged in 2021 and have delayed their wedding multiple times, once because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also due to the birth of their two children.
Gorka has recently opened up about when they plan to get married. He explained they want to wait until "both the kids can walk down the aisle and be a part of the day."
Speaking to the new issue of Heat magazine, he said: "We're going to get married, but we are happy how we are. We have two children, so it doesn't matter if we sign a document or not.
"We wanted to get married, but then we had Mia and then COVID happened. After that, we got pregnant with Thiago, and Gemma didn't want to get married pregnant.
"Then after the pregnancy, she wanted to get in shape." He continued: "But once Thiago is old enough, both the kids can walk down the aisle and be a part of the day."
Gorka has said he and Gemma make a great partnership - especially when it comes to looking after their children whilst one of them is away for work.
The dancer added: "The good thing about Gemma and I is that we’re a great team. For example, she just had a weekend away with her friends because they got it for her 40th birthday. So I stayed with the children, and I absolutely loved it.
"She was like, ‘Are you going to miss me?’, but I actually had the best time, just me and the kids. We had picnics, we went to the park. Saturday night, we ordered takeaway pizzas and made a picnic in the living room watching a movie. It was fantastic."
