Dancing on Ice judge Katarina Witt claims East Germany's communist regime spied on her having sex

Dancing On Ice judge Katarina Witt says her country's secret police spied on her during her most intimate moments, including while she was having sex.

The East German figure skater's movements were monitored and recorded by the notorious Stasi for 17 years.

They were determined the two-time Olympic gold medalist must not defect to the West.

The communist regime bugged Katarina’s flat and reported on her health, friendships and stormy relationship with former trainer Jutta Muller.

The 46-year-old told the Daily Mirror: 'I discovered the Stasi had me in their sights when I was an eight-year-old figure-skating student.

'I had been watched over my entire life – observed, spied upon, manipulated. When I eventually got hold of my Stasi file there were 3,000 pages, in 27 boxes. I was shocked and ­horrified by the extent of it.

'I went through all kinds of emotions – anger, disbelief, laughter at the absurdity of it. You think, ‘Oh my God – how can somebody spy on your life when you’re only eight years old?’

'OK, by 19 I was an Olympic champion and the whole world knew me, so the government was afraid that I’d defect and damage the standing of the country.

'I could see why they might have been spying on me then, but not when I was a child. The files were as intimate as diaries, but also full of made up stories about me.'

On one occasion, agents claimed to have listened in as Katarina was having sex, recording the exact time she began and finished.

She demanded access to her files before they were made public and started writing her autobiography to set the record straight.

Her autobiography revealed that one note read: 'Sexual intercourse took place... from 20.00 until 20.07.'

Katarina, who posed for Playboy in 1998, was born in Staaken, East Germany, and attended a school for athletically gifted ­children.

She won gold at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 at age 19 and in Calgary in 1988.

She also won four World Championships and six European titles, but turned professional in 1988.

It was thought of as an unusual move for an East German athlete at the time and sparked rumours that she had co-operated with the Stasi. It was thought she had been given cars and a flat so as not to defect - a rumour Katarina vehemently denies.

In 1993, a political activist accused her of having worked for the Stasi.

'People were coming out of the woodwork and telling lies about my past,' she told the newspaper.

'I couldn’t begin to deal with all of that in interviews. I needed to write the book and address it all.

'It felt ridiculous to be writing my own biography at 27 instead of 60 or 70, but I was forced to do it just to keep the facts straight.

'I’ve had a great life. I will never say I lived in a horrible country – the groundwork of becoming a world-class athlete was supported by East Germany.
'But reading those files and seeing how I was being portrayed. I had to explain the truth and put things into perspective.”
She says she's loving her role on Dancing on Ice and spoke about calling Chemmy Alcott 'a big woman'.
'I think the contestants know I’ll tell it as it is, even though I sometimes use the wrong words. When I called Chemmy ‘a big woman’ it made such a fuss. I didn’t mean to offend her. I meant she was tall.'


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