Karen Hauer's relatable explanation for Kevin Clifton split that broke her heart

17 October 2023 , 07:27

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Karen Hauer's relatable explanation for Kevin Clifton split that broke her heart

Strictly Come Dancing star Karen Hauer has split from her husband, fitness professional Jordan Wyn-Jones, after a 'tough' few months in their marriage. The shock news comes after the dancer was pictured without her wedding ring at the Pride of Britain Awards last week, just 16 months after the couple had tied the knot.

A source told the Mirror it's 'very sad for both of them' but there is 'no ill-will whatsoever', adding: "The split is amicable, and they wish each other the best." Jordan is Karen's third husband, with her first being former dance partner Matthew Hauer and her second fellow Strictly dancer Kevin Clifton - who moved on with his current partner, Stacey Dooley five years ago.

Karen has split from her third husband Jordan after a 'tough' few months of marriage (Instagram)

Karen was open about her heartbreak following her split from former husband Kevin Clifton (Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage)

Karen said she was 'blindsided' by how quickly Kevin moved on in 2018, and was left 'struggling to get out of bed'. The star described the break-up as the 'toughest period of her life' and praised her rescue dog Betty for helping her carry on amid her struggle. The pair, who got married in 2015, met while performing on the New York leg of long-running live dance show Burn The Floor in 2011.

At the time, Kevin was still with his second wife, ballet dancer Clare Craze, who he met in a London salsa bar in 2007 and married at St Mary's Church in Clare's hometown of Wivenhoe, Essex. But their relationship collapsed after they moved back to the UK with the show, and Kevin - who previously wed amateur Latin world champion Anna Melnikova in 2003 - got with Karen soon after.

According to Kevin, Venezuelan pro dancer Karen was everything he had been looking for. Of that time, he once said: "I wasn't myself - a lot of friends and family were telling me that. It was just a bit of a weird time. When I met Karen, I could get on with her on a completely different level." In 2015, he proposed on stage during a performance of Burn The Floor on Karen's birthday, and they married that same year in London.

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But looking back, Karen said it might have been too much, too soon, telling Closer magazine: "I don't think we were ready for marriage. We were still growing as performers, as people, as lovers, and sometimes you just can't find the right way to fix things." By 2016, rumours of trouble in paradise were swirling, and Karen recently revealed that their relationship "got really nasty overnight" as she battled with her mounting jealousy.

"It's six years down the line and things started going wrong, just little things, like a phone call, like, 'You didn't call me the whole day','" she told The Divorce Club podcast. Of Kevin's reaction to her challenges, she continued: "Sometimes I would get the 'You're not very kind, you're not very nice' and I was like 'What do you mean? I don't understand.' There were little attacks that we would do to each other."

But according to Karen, the rot really set in when she clung on tighter to the marriage amid her own sense of insecurity - a move which only caused more rows. She explained: "Then the fights, I was getting jealous, but I was only jealous because I wasn't getting the attention that I wanted from my husband and then I didn't understand why so I started gripping, trying to pull him. 'Why are you not doing this? Why are you not doing that?' Exactly what you're not supposed to do, I just wanted answers. And then it just got really nasty overnight."

Karen and Kevin were married for three years before their relationship broke down

Kevin Clifton moved on with dance partner Stacey Dooley after their 2018 split (mirror.co.uk)

They tried therapy, but Karen said there was "too much anger and emotional baggage" for it to work. And finally, they woke up one morning, looked at each other and 'knew' it was over. "Eventually we both couldn't take it anymore," she added. Kevin and Karen confirmed their split in early 2018 but continued to work together on Strictly, which understandably made moving on more difficult.

Especially as Karen admitted she'd wanted to save their marriage. "I would have never let go of it. I wouldn't have never, never let go of it," she continued. "I would have liked to have fought for it and it took me a year after we separated to actually let go of him. 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."

While couples therapy didn't for them, Karen went through her own therapy after the relationship split and healed her broken heart. She told the Mail Online in 2018: "I've taken a big hit. I had to realise that I'm 36 years old. I'm not a kid and it has taken me a lot of therapy and life coaching to get through this. I have found it really difficult." At the time, Karen said she had therapy twice a month and hypnotherapy to treat anxiety.

Kevin later started dating his 2018 Strictly partner Stacey, while Karen moved on with opera singer David Webb. The pair remain friends and regularly support each others' careers, with Karen one of the first to congratulate Kevin and Stacey on their 2018 win, while he cheered her and celeb partner Jamie Laing on in 2020.

Frances Kindon