UNBELIEVABLE: Gorka Marquez’s EMOTIONAL Plea To Gemma Atkinson Over Their ‘Separate Rooms’ Situation

Gorka Marquez made an urgent appeal to Gemma Atkinson following a nighttime struggle. The pair, who first crossed paths on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, recently introduced a new four-legged member to their household.

They welcomed goldendoodle puppy Benji home in May, just before Gorka’s Speakeasy tour alongside fellow Strictly professional Karen Hauer. Gemma disclosed that the pup became “like a shadow” whilst Gorka was absent from their family home. Benji even started slumbering on the couple’s bed alongside Gemma.

During the pair’s Lost in Translation podcast, Gorka disclosed that Benji now pounces on him and “licks his ear” throughout the night, occasionally landing clumsily as he bounds back onto the mattress.

He explained: “It’s the fact that since I came home now, because I was away for six weeks and I knew this was going to happen, now Benji is used to being in the bed with us, and every night jumps in and out in the middle of the night. It’s cute and lovely but imagine when he jumps at three in the morning, you’re deep asleep and he’s licking your ear.

“It’s not nice. He jumps and when he jumps he doesn’t know where he lands. And a few times he has landed on my little crackers. And it’s very painful when you’re asleep.”

Gemma maintains that Benji spends considerable portions of his night “sleeping on the floor” beside the couple’s bed.

She replied: “You were away for seven weeks and when you left, he wasn’t big enough to jump on the bed. He’s a big dog now. He’s obsessed with me though.”

She continued: “The thing is with Benji, he slept on the floor next to my side of the bed and he loved it. But he’s not on the bed all night. He gets in when we’re getting into bed and he’ll sit with us for 10 minutes then he goes on the floor.

“He’s on the floor for most of the night. It’s only if I get up to the bathroom, he follows me to the bathroom and he puts his head on my knee when I’m weeing. Then he’ll jump back in bed with me.”

However, Gorka maintains that Benji pinched his place in the bed recently whilst he was helping their son Thiago settle at 5.30am.

Gemma reveals the only solution the pair can find now is to leave the pooch downstairs, but she worries he will “cry all night”.

Gemma continued: “Wait until we get another one.” To which Gorka jokingly responded: “Then I leave then.”

Gorka disclosed he had made an appeal to Gemma when he first came back from tour. He explained: “First week home, I slept really bad and I said, ‘Gemma, we cannot have this, Benji cannot keep sleeping on the bed’, she went, ‘Well you can go in the spare room’. So that’s what’s going to happen, nice, great.”

Gemma insists Gorka “sleeps better” when he’s resting alone. She continued: “Some couples do that, some couples have separate bedrooms, it doesn’t mean they love each other any less.”

Gorka maintains he’s “happy” to sleep in the same bed as Gemma but not Benji.

He continued: “I love the dog but he needs to go down.”