Dancer denies role in Crowe-Spencer split

Dancer Damian Whitewood has denied playing a role in the split between Danielle Spencer and Russell Crowe. Photo / AP

The dancer linked to the break-up in Russell Crowe's nine-year marriage with wife Danielle Spencer denies being the "other man" in the couple's relationship.

Damian Whitewood spoke out for the first time on the Seven Network's Today Tonight program.

He said the couple became very close when they were a team on Dancing With the Stars (DWTS).

"We were pretty much spending six hours a day, with a five-week rehearsal period, and that was every day bar one which she spent with the kids," Whitewood told Today Tonight.

He did admit Spencer had confided that there were problems with Crowe.

"Once we had wrapped and finished she did say things weren't great and that's pretty much as far as the conversation went," he said.

Spencer and Whitewood were runners-up in the last series of the TV reality show, which was won by singer Johnny Ruffo and his partner Luda Kroiter.

Whitewood said becoming friends was a large part of the team's success on the show.

"If you have two people trying to dance together that have nothing in common then you're going to have a bit of a train wreck," he says.

"If you don't have chemistry there is half the problem, you've got to have something that people are going to tune in and watch every week."

Whitewood told the program he was surprised to hear from Spencer that she and Crowe had separated, but refused to reveal the conversations he'd had with his former partner as they were too "personal".

But he denied being the cause of the couple's separation.

"I think a three month dancing show compared to a nine-year marriage with two wonderful kids ... no," he said, shaking his head emphatically.

"It's all speculation, there's no truth to the matter whatever, we're great friends, it was a professional dancing partnership."

Whitewood also denied rumours the couple had spent the night together following a wrap party in Melbourne.

"We all actually stay in the same hotel," he said.

He also defended a photograph taken of the couple with their arms around each other at a bar.

"I had my arms around her every day on the dance floor," he said, after explaining the shot had been taken during an evening out with several of the DWTS performers.

The dancer said during the show he didn't see any signs the couple had been having problems, but he hadn't seen them together.

"I met Danielle and I became friends with Danielle, I danced with Danielle for three months and then I met Russell at the end."

- AAP