Strictly Come Dancing star Karen Hauer claims she 'bankrolled' her short-lived third marriage to a man she met online after painful year long separation from Kevin Clifton
The Venezuelan-American ballroom specialist married Clifton, her second husband, in 2015 - three years after joining the Strictly team of professionals.
Currently the show's longest serving cast-member, Hauer announced her divorce from the British dancer in 2018, but she admits their separation played out behind the scenes for months before the couple confirmed they were no longer together.
Appearing on the latest edition of Paul C. Brunson's We Need To Talk podcast, Hauer, 43, insisted it was she who instigated the separation when it became clear that he had 'distanced himself' from her.
She said: 'This one hurt, because we belonged together. You wouldn't say each other's names without following the other person's name.
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'I felt that he distanced himself from me, but I was probably doing the same. Because I felt that if you don't want me then OK, I'll retreat, I'll give you your space. It was one of those, where we're both not talking about it.
'I was like, "Do you want a divorce? Do you want to split up? I don't know what I want to do. What do you want to do? Do you know what you want? I don't know what I want. Are we broken up?"'
'So it took a while actually, it took about a year... behind the scenes. In front of the scenes everything was normal.
'We fell apart, and me not knowing... obviously, I didn't know what was happening in his mind and whether he wanted to be with me or not.'
Despite calling time on the marriage after just three years, Hauer admitted she would have worked at salvaging their relationship had he wanted to be with her.
She said: 'I knew that I would've worked on it - I would've 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 wait.
'I waited for a while, and I was giving him his space to think, and then funnily enough I met someone. I was literally waiting to be loved.
'He just wanted a divorce, and I didn't fight it. Something had to happen in order for him to make a decision, because I wasn't going to make the decision.'
Clifton subsequently embarked on a new relationship with documentarian Stacey Dooley after meeting her on the BBC show. The couple welcomed a daughter together in 2023.
Meanwhile Hauer went on to date opera singer David Webb, who she was said to have 'quietly split' from back in September 2020, before entering a new relationship businessman with Jordan Wyn-Jones, the man who would ultimately become her third husband.
Originally from Brighton, Wyn-Jones was living in Sydney when he started to follow Karen on Instagram. She followed him back and they began to exchange messages before regularly speaking on FaceTime.
The businessman eventually relocated to the UK, with the couple marrying in 2022, but the marriage soon crumbled and the couple announced their separation just 16-months later.
She said: 'I got myself into a relationship that I shouldn't have. I felt embarrassed that I couldn't keep anyone around me and I said to myself, "No, I'm not going to get into a relationship... spend some time on your own."
'But I don't know how to be on my own.'
Looking back on their relationship, Hauer says she kept them afloat through the money she earned as a professional dancer.
'He was saying to me I'm going to get a job soon, I'm going to help out when I can. But I work hard for my money and I was bankrolling everything,' she claimed.
'I wasn't home alone, but there was nothing that fulfilled me. He wasn't providing anything, there was no enhancement in my emotional being, my physical being.
'I was working, doing my thing, coming in and out of the house and letting him settle down.'
Shortly before announcing their separation, Hauer revealed they were having counselling to help them with their relationship.
She told HELLO! magazine: 'Counselling. You know what I think communication is massive but learning how to communicate, you know, so we get outside help.
'So whenever we're having tricky moments or anything like that, it's just seeing the vulnerable side of each other and understanding it and knowing that both of us are working on things because nobody is perfect.'
She added: 'There is no such thing as a happy marriage or a happy relationship with the perfect couple.
'It's about dealing with things the right way and not just running away from things, and I guess that's what makes us tick even better and understand one another.'
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