Strictly’s Karen Hauer reveals hurt over divorce from Kevin Clifton

They were married for three years before they split in 2018. 

But Strictly Come Dancing professional Karen Hauer, 38, has revealed she would ‘never, never have let go of her marriage’ to Kevin Clifton, also 38, and wanted to fight to keep it going. 

Karen told The Divorce Club podcast with Samantha Baines that the couple split after ‘things got really nasty overnight’ after becoming jealous at not getting enough attention from her partner. 

She said: ‘Obviously, other things happen, there are other factors that happened, that really hurt us both. But I thought… I would have never let go of it. I wouldn’t have never, never let go of it. 

‘I would have liked to have fought for it. It took me a year after we separated to actually let go of him.’

Since their divorce, Kevin has moved in with new love, TV presenter Stacey Dooley, 33, while Karen recently split from opera singer David Webb. 

During the chat, Karen admitted that it took her a while to get over her relationship with Kevin, which is no surprise given that they had to work together on Strictly.  

She continued: ‘It took me a long time to cut the umbilical cord that I had connected to him. 

‘Because it was connected for such a long time and at a completely different level than my first marriage, because this marriage was what I was always looking for. But I learned a lot. 

‘Huge lessons for me. Because of that breakup and what I had to go through emotionally, physically work wise and in the public eye – it made me stronger, and it made me realise what I really need to work on, and that was me.

‘I had to work with him for two, three years after we got separated and it was hard because you can see how much love you have for one another, and the respect.’

Karen said she knows now what went wrong between them. 

She said: ‘Under different circumstances of better understanding of ourselves, of what we actually needed, and to actually just sit down and have some time for ourselves, I think that it would have worked.’ 

Explaining what led to their divorce, she admitted became ‘jealous’ because she wasn’t getting the ‘attention’ she wanted from her partner. 

Karen was married to fellow former dance partner Matthew Hauer in 2009 and she has kept hold of her married name. 

Meanwhile, Kevin was previously married to Clare Craze from 2007 after meeting two years before in a salsa bar. They split in 2010, and were divorced in 2013.

Before that, the Grimsby-born performer tied the knot with to his former Latin dance partner, Anna Melnikova from 2003 – it’s not known when they split.