Olympic hero James Cracknell, 47, is pictured getting VERY close to Cambridge University student who comforted him following the end of his 17-year marriage to TV host Bev Turner

• James Cracknell has been getting close to Cambridge student Jordan Connell  
• He’s been pictured sharing an intimate moment with her at the Henley Regatta 
• From the US, Jordan is a member of the university ‘Cougars’ cheerleading team

James Cracknell has been snapped sharing an intimate moment with the Cambridge finance student who’s been comforting the Olympic rower through his divorce to TV’s Bev Turner.

A photograph of the double gold medalist and New Yorker Jordan Connell seeming to kissing has emerged after MailOnline this week revealed the couple’s blossoming friendship.

Ms Connell, who is in her early 30s and part of the ‘cougars’ cheerleading team, was seen getting close with the 47-year-old father-of-three at the Henley Regatta. 

James Cracknell has been snapped sharing an intimate moment with Cambridge finance student Jordan Connell

Cracknell beamed as Ms Connell was seen in one photo with her hand gently placed on his stomach as the pair posed with friends

Jordan, whose family come from New York, is part of the Cambridge University ‘Cougars’ cheerleading team as she is pictured here (left) at a sporting event

Cracknell, who earlier this year became the oldest man to win the boat race for Cambridge, has been in high spirits this week as he was seen with Jordan at the Henley Royal Regatta  

Cracknell, who this week ended his 17-year marriage to TV host Beverley Turner, has been seen several times at the event with the young blonde who he met during their time together at Cambridge. 

He beamed as Ms Connell was seen in one photo with her hand gently placed on his stomach as the pair posed with friends.

A source told MailOnline of the blossoming friendship: ‘They have become very close and since his marriage break up there are few people who would deny him the support of an attractive young woman.

‘The end of James’ marriage to Bev has been amicable and friendly but there’s always going to be regret and maybe loneliness when something like that happens so it’s great he’s going his own way.’ 

Cracknell’s new friend, whose family live in New York, is a member of the ‘Cambridge Cougars’, a university cheerleading team who support students at sports events. 

The Olympic gold winning rower – who became the oldest rower to win the boat race for Cambridge earlier this year – announced his split from Beverley in April, as first revealed by Mail Online. 

Beverley, 45, has remained in the family home in Chiswick, west London with their three children a son aged 15, and two daughters aged 10 and eight.

A source close to the athlete told MailOnline he met Jordan at Cambridge University where he has been study for a masters in Human Evolutionary Studies and training for the boat race

A source told MailOnline: ‘James and Jordan have become very close and since his marriage break up there are few people who would deny him the support of an attractive young woman’ Pictured: The pair are all smiles as they were seen several times this week at Henley

Father-of-three Cracknell announced his split from his TV presenter ex-wife Beverley Turner, who nursed him back to health from a devastating brain injury, in April this year after 17 years 

Cracknell, who won gold at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics as well as six world championship medals has been living in Cambridge where he studied for an MPhil in Human Evolutionary Studies at Peterhouse College while also training for the prestigious boat race.

Beverley, who previously worked for BBC Radio 5 Live, LBC and also once presented ITV’s Formula One coverage, was said to have devastated by the split.

She has previously spoken movingly about her struggles to hold the marriage together after Cracknell was involved in an horrific bike crash in the US in 2010.

Cracknell has turned to Jordan (above) to help him through a particularly tough time

Their marriage was seen as amongst the strongest in celebrity circles as she carefully nursed him back to health.

Beverley told about her struggle to cope with the aggressive, disorientated stranger he became, she confessed: ‘Every moment of my life, from the time he was in that hospital bed in Arizona was about getting James back to the person he once was.’ 

Cracknell himself said he was ‘lucky to be alive’ after the accident, which happened when he was hit from behind by a petrol tanker while heading from Los Angeles to New York and was left with an injury to the frontal lobes of his brain.  

His crash helmet was shorn in two, and he later revealed the incident had left him with epilepsy, a changed personality and a short temper. Beverley was pregnant with their third child at the time.

The star was filming a series called Cracknell’s Race Across America, in which he was to attempt running, cycling and rowing across the US in 18 days.

He was later flown back to the UK to recover in a London hospital.

Double Olympic gold medal winner Cracknell and ex-wife Beverley ended their marriage with divorce this week. Beverley has remained in the family home in Chiswick, west London

Beverley and Cracknell (last pictured together in June last year) told of their sadness at the end of their marriage – but said in a statement that they were committed to their ‘amazing’ children

The rower has admitted to the toll the accident has taken on their relationship, once revealing in a newspaper interview: ‘It can be hard to feel like we’re a married unit any more. We’re more of a team but in a weird way like a sporting unit rather than a loving one… It’s not ideal for a marriage but a firm base to build from and hopefully we’ll get back to where we were. Marriage is a hard thing anyway. That is true on a magnified scale with brain injury.’

The couple have been admired for the way they rebuilt their relationship and family life and continued with their respective high profile careers. 

The collaborated on ‘Touching Distance’, a revealing book about their experience in which at one stage Beverley feared the man she once knew as her husband was going to kill her because of the personality change that he went through following the accident.

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