Breaking Up is Hard to Do

[lulu]

I've always wondered, too, if the rumors about M&D were true. I hope not--only because I always liked Natasha, and it would be sad if Artur broke her heart. Before his marriage, there was never any suggestion in the press that he and Natasha were involved, or that she was in love with him. But, then again, why would he bother to keep the marriage a secret unless there *was* something between them? It's a mystery.

Does anyone know what's happened with Natasha in recent years? Is she still married to Craig Shepherd, the hockey skater? Is she coaching or anything?

There seems to be so many rumors and assumptions, that it is hard to know what is true or not; and not just stuff from the internet.

Artur was not married in February of 1992 only recently engaged.
His son was born in September of 1992-so he probably only found out about the baby a few weeks before.

While I feel bad for Natalia if she had a crush on Artur; it's not his fault if he didn't love her, or even if he didn't realize that she had a crush on him-if she even did.
Natasha & Artur are both still married to their spouses-and have both worked with them off/on the ice.
They both seem happy with their current life.

Natasha is still married to Craig Shepard; they did some pro shows/comps back in the 1990s.
They also did some coaching together. Natalia during the coaching & Craig doing the off ice training.
Natalia now coaches/head of a figure skating program in Texas; she's a US citizen.

[Linny]

Even if Natasha were in love with Artur, methinks she had a lot of other problems back then that would have interfered with a relationship. It was actually quite gentlemanly of Artur to not reciprocate - it would have made matters worse for her. It sounds, though, as if Natasha has gotten her life on track since then. Good for her!
Linny

[Chi-TownDale]

As I can recall there was an article in IFS in whic Ulanov revealed that it was their coach Zhuk who was responsible for his breakup with Irina Rodnina. Which is not surpising considering Zhuk's track record.

As a personal friend of Aleksei Ulanov's, I can confirm this is the case. Aleksei quit Zhuk because Zhuk was taking all of the credit for the routines that Aleksei had developed. Aleksei has an extensive background in choreography, ballet and classical music while attending universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg in addition to being an outstanding skater.

Zhuk was not nearly creative enough to come up with the kind of choreography that Aleksei had developed. Irina had nothing to do with Aleksei's quitting, except perhaps in her own mind. He also didn't deliberatly drop her in one of their routines in which she suffered a concussion. This was also another rumor that was totally baseless. He didn't need to injure Irina in order to quit.

To say that would be the same as saying that Aleksei's daughter's pairs partner deliberately dropped her in order to get a new partner. Aleksei's daughter and her partner were Russian Junior Champions in pairs prior to the last Olympics which meant that they would have made the Olympic team if one of the pairs on the Olympic team had to drop out for any reason. She injured her knee when he dropped her and couldn't skate for six months, which has probably ruined her Olympic career since she grew so tall while she was mending that she has had tremendous problems getting her skills back.