The Strictly pros split in 2018
Strictly Come Dancing is all about the glitz and glam, but over the years it’s become just as well known for the infamous Strictly curse. Who can forget Seann Walsh’s illicit kiss with Katya Jones or Ben Cohen leaving his wife for dance partner Kristina Rihanoff?
Although the Strictly curse is a hot topic among fans of the show, it’s rare for the professional dancers to speak out about it. However, that’s all changed as veteran pro Karen Hauer has shared her opinion on it.
Karen, who was previously married to fellow pro Kevin Clifton before their 2018 split, admitted that things can get ‘confusing’ when spending so much time in close quarters with their celebrity dancer partners.
‘You're literally learning about this person inside out. So, and then, you know, you confuse things at times,’ she said on Paul C Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast. ‘I think sometimes when you're moving sexy around someone, you know, it's movement. If I'm moving my hips from right to left, it's pendulum action. I'm not actually trying to be sexy with you. This is just the rhythm of my body, right, that I'm creating. So, whether you fall in love with the movement, seeing someone move so sexy.
‘And obviously, you know, if there's problems at home, if you feel down, but when I come to you and I make you feel happy, it's all in a bubble. This is all make believe. I am teaching you at the end of the day. This is for a show. This is acting. This is movement. This is a performance.’
Karen – whose previous dance partners include Mark Wright, Chris Ramsey and Jamie Laing – admitted she ‘would never’ be drawn into the Strictly curse.
She insisted, ‘I mean I've not experienced that. I take my job, I close everything up. Whether you're really good-looking, I don't see your physique. I see your brain. How I'm going to teach you how to dance. And then also when you start learning about someone, you start getting to know someone, you're like, “absolutely not. I would never. Never.”’
The Venezuelan dancer also opened up about the ‘tough’ breakdown of her marriage to second husband Kevin.
‘We fell apart and I obviously didn't know what was happening in his mind whether he wanted to be with me or not. I knew that I would have worked on it. I would have stayed but at the same time I couldn't be with someone who wasn't sure of whether they wanted to be with me or not. I couldn't just wait. I waited for a while and I was giving him his space to think and then funny enough I met someone and you know we weren't together but we were together in the public eye,’ she explained.
‘He just wanted a divorce. I didn't fight it because … in my mind it's almost like something had to happen in order for him to make a decision, right? Because I wasn't going to make the decision. I wasn't going to pull the plug. So then I tripped and then the grenade went off. You know, I pulled the pin.’
