Strictly Come Dancing pro Karen Hauer has spoken candidly about her separation from ex-husband Kevin Clifton.
The pair tied the knot back in 2015 after meeting on Burn the Floor, but their marriage came to an end three years later.
Speaking on The Divorce Club podcast with host Samantha Baines, Karen confessed that it took her a year "to let go" of Kevin.
"I would have liked to have fought for it," she said of their relationship. "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."
But the choreographer "learned a huge lesson" from their split and the attention it garnered from the public made her "stronger".
"It made me kind of realise what I really need to work on, and that was me," Karen went on to note.
"I had to work with him for two, three years after we got separated and it was hard because you can see how much love you have for one another, and the respect."
Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One. It's due to return later in 2021.
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