Kara Tointon pays tribute to her fiancé Marius Jensen on Father's Day after undergoing a double mastectomy

Daily Mail​

16-06-2025

Kara Tointon paid tribute to her fiancé Marius Jensen on Father's Day as she shared a series of adorable photos.
The former EastEnders actress, 41, who recently revealed that she's undergone a double mastectomy, said her children were 'incredibly lucky.'
Despite rumours in 2022 that she had split from Marius, the pair have put their troubles behind them and last year quit the UK for the peaceful Nordic countryside with their sons Frey, six, and Helly, four.
In the update shared to Instagram, Kara included photos of her partner swimming with Frey and Helly and enjoying the outdoors.
She wrote: 'Deserves his own late post… The boys are so incredibly lucky to have you for a Pappa.'
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Kara recently revealed that she's undergone a double mastectomy after learning that she carries the deadly BRCA1 gene.
The actress shared an emotional post to Instagram detailing her decision after losing her mother to ovarian cancer in 2018.
She announced that she has undergone a double mastectomy and had her fallopian tubes removed as a preventative measure.
Kara's operation comes just six years after her mother Carol passed away following her own battle with the disease.
As an ambassador for the Eve appeal, a charity that raises awareness of gynaecological cancers, the actress opened up to her followers about the journey that led to her discovery that she carries the BRCA1 gene.
Speaking ahead of the charity's Get Lippy campaign to highlight the causes and symptoms of various gynae cancers, Kara revealed that after she losing her mother to ovarian cancer in 2018, she underwent genetic testing which revealed that she is predisposed to the disease.
She said: 'You may have heard of the BRCA genes type 1 and 2 and as a carrier it means that I am at a greater risk of both breast and ovarian cancer.
'Back in 2018 when my mum was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer, I was asked to take a genetics test.'
In the update shared to Instagram, Kara included photos of her partner swimming with Frey and Helly and enjoying the outdoors
She added: 'There is a history of both cancers in my family but for various reasons including generational trauma of which I'll talk more about another time, we hadn't looked into it until that point.
'But it was put to us, we took the test and it was confirmed that my mum and I both carried the gene.'
As a mother-of-two, Kara told how her family were her main consideration in her decision making.
She said: 'I was pregnant with my first child at the time, knew I wanted more children if possible so over the next couple of years I was invited to various meetings by the NHS to really become informed and to understand all my options.
'Last year having had my second son in 2021 and deciding that our family was complete, I underwent two preventative surgeries.
The actress paid tribute to her late mother in a moving Instagram post (pictured), shared shortly after her death in 2019
'The first a double mastectomy and the second a two part protector study, a trial.
'They believe that ovarian cancer begins in the fallopian tubes so by removing them first checking out you can remove the ovaries later.'
Tointon, a former Strictly Come Dancing winner, revealed that after having several medical investigations, she decided that surgery was the best option.
'We are finding out more and more about personal genetics and most people believe in surveillance, but after doing this for a couple of years, having MRIs, waiting for biopsy, we decided that this was the right decision for me and my family,' she said.
'I wasn't an easy decision, but one I am very glad that I made and I can now with hindsight talk about it properly.'
Tointon is not the only woman in the public eye to talk openly about her procedure.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie also had a double mastectomy as well as having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, after she was found to have a 50 per cent risk of developing ovarian cancer.'
Tointon raises two sons Frey and Helly with her Norwegian partner Marius, a chiropractor. The family divide their time between Britain and Norway where Kara's sister Hannah and her father still live.
Her own mother died of ovarian cancer in 2019, months after the actress revealed she had been struggling with poor health.
Speaking to HELLO! in 2018 about her plans to marry Jenson, she said: 'We are hoping next year, perhaps in Norway or maybe in London.
'My mum hasn't been too well over the last year or so and I want her to be able to enjoy it.
'Seeing her with Frey and dealing with everything she has to right now is overwhelming and I couldn't be more proud. I just want her to be back to herself again. That's our priority.'
What is the BRCA gene and how does it affect people's risk of cancer?
Having a mutated BRCA gene - as famously carried by Angelina Jolie - dramatically increases the chance a woman will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, from 12 per cent to 90 per cent.
Between one in 800 and one in 1,000 women carry a BRCA gene mutation, which increases the chances of breast and ovarian cancer.
Both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that produce proteins to suppress tumours. When these are mutated, DNA damage can be caused and cells are more likely to become cancerous.
The mutations are usually inherited and increase the risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer significantly.
When a child has a parent who carries a mutation in one of these genes they have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the mutations.
About 1.3 per cent of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer, this increase to 44 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation.