Strictly Come Dancing star Karen Hauer said she struggled to leave her bed in the wake of her divorce to fellow show pro Kevin Clifton.
The Venezuelan-American dancer is the longest-serving female dancer on the BBC series after joining the ballroom stalwart in 2012.
During her 12-year tenure, she’s been partnered with Mark Wright, Jeremy Vine, Jamie Laing and most recently, Jayde Adams.
Hauer spent several years working alongside her ex-husband, 40, whom she met while performing on the New York leg of long-running live dance show Burn The Floor in 2011.
The pair married four years later in 2015.
However, it wasn’t meant to be for the pair as they announced their separation three years later.
Several years on, the dancer has described their split the “most difficult” period of her life.
Reflecting on that time, the 41-year-old said that she considers herself to be “structured and disciplined”, but that when emotional things happen, “nothing you do on the outside helps”.
She told The Sun: “I went through a really tough divorce, and it was the most difficult thing I’ve faced on my own – and, I guess, in a spotlight.”
The BBC star then shared how her beloved rescue dog Betty helped her through the difficult period of her life.
“Betty saved my life, pretty much,” she added. “Having that unconditional love and having her there to help me actually get up out of bed.”
Hauer and Clifton split in 2018, the same year he won Strictly with journalist Stacey Dooley. The pair ended up dating and have welcomed their first child, a daughter Minnie, earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Hauer found love again with Jordan Wyn-Jones, who she married last year.
It’s not the first time the dancer has spoke candidly about their divorce, having previously admitted she wanted to fight to stay together.
Appearing on The Divorce Club podcast with Samantha Baines in 2021, 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.” She then added that it had taken her a year to “let go” of Clifton following their break-up.
