Almost two months after they won each other’s hearts on Dancing With The Stars, country music singer Adam Brand and his dance partner Jade Hatcher exclusively reveal for the first time how they fell in love.

The couple have opened up to New Idea, saying their romance unfolded during the hit TV series and that their relationship has continued to go from strength to strength since they won the show in September.

‘We love each other’s company, and it just simply works,’ confides Adam, as he tenderly kisses Jade during a romantic photo shoot on a Sydney beach. 'We’re very happy,’ he adds. ‘And when something is right, it just happens naturally – it all falls into place.’

Perfect partners
Although they both felt a mutual attraction for each other when they first met several weeks before DWTS began, neither imagined that dancing in front of millions of people on live TV would lead them down the path of romance.

But with training sessions often lasting up to eight hours a day, it was probably inevitable that their quiet attraction for each other would soon boil over into something more – despite their 20-year age difference!

‘There were so many times after training when Jade would put on some music and just start dancing,’ Adam, 39, says. 'I would sit there and just be absolutely mesmerised. I could not take my eyes off her.

‘I saw how intensely emotional she was about dance,’ he says. ‘The amount of times during training that she’d be showing me stuff and I’d just stop… she takes my breath away.’

Passions surface
For Jade, 19, there wasn’t a definite moment when she decided to take their working relationship to the next level. 'It really was gradual,’ says Jade, who lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, close to Adam.

‘We ate every meal together, we travelled together, we spent pretty much all our time with each other – and I liked it. What isn’t there to like about him? I love his amazing passion for life, and I’m usually in uncontrollable fits of laughter because of his sense of humour.’

It soon became obvious to their friends and families that they had begun a relationship. ‘All through the show we maintained we were close,’ Adam confides. ‘I think we realised something was going to happen when we wanted to spend time with each other outside the dance studio. We would grab a coffee, or something to eat together, and it went from there.

‘A lot of people said to us: “Why don’t you just come out and say you’re a couple?” But we thought that with the whole emotional roller-coaster of appearing on the show, and for me learning to dance, we really wanted to examine how we felt. So we thought that we would wait until the end of the show to see how it all went.’ 

A close bond
The couple are now even tighter than ever. There’s also a chance that Jade may spend some time living with Adam when he moves to the US next year.

The pair, however, have a few obstacles to face. First, there is the prospect of a long-distance relationship as Adam fulfils his US record deal by living in Nashville, for a year from February. There is also the lifestyle of a touring musician and the age difference.

‘There’s no age gap even though there is one physically,’ insists Adam, who met Jade’s family early in their relationship. ‘Most of the time I feel like the younger one in our relationship - Jade is much older than her years. The age difference hasn’t been a factor of concern or even something to think about. I know some people get hooked up on these things and say it’s wrong, but it just doesn’t matter to us.

‘The people who are close to us are happy for us and can see why it works. We don’t even need to explain it to them.’

Jade agrees: ‘We’ve a lot of things in common, and the way we are as people, it’s never come between us, or been a problem or even a thought,’  she says. ‘I’m close to my family, and they’re very supportive. The people close to us just want us to be happy.’

Future fears
Shortly after DWTS finished, Adam travelled to Nashville for a three-week songwriting stint but missed his new girlfriend so much he cut short the trip.

He and Jade have been inseparable ever since, and she’s about to join Adam on his tour of Australia, beginning this month. She’s also travelling to the US to be with him during a two-week trip in November. But it’s his year-long move to the States that is worrying the pair.

‘The next few months will be about us deciding how to tackle next year,’ Adam says. ‘The US deal has me based in Nashville for a year, with short trips back to Australia. But it’s difficult sitting here now, trying to figure out what we’ll do. We’re searching for answers. Obviously, right now, we’re inseparable, we don’t want to spend a minute apart, so the thought of spending time away from each other is daunting.’

For a bloke who’s survived two divorces, it would be easy for Adam to be pessimistic. But he seems genuine in the hope that he and Jade will win against the odds.

‘I desperately want to believe in love and marriage,’ he says. ‘Through the years, when you go through difficult moments, your faith gets tested and broken. I’m looking forward to having my faith restored.

• New Idea made a donation to the Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research on the request of Adam and Jade.