Strictly Come Dancing’s Karen and Kevin Clifton confirm they have split after three years of marriage
STRICTLY Come Dancing's Karen and Kevin Clifton have confirmed they have split up.
Speaking on Chris Evans' breakfast show, Kevin said: "We just wanted to let everyone know that privately we are not together anymore but professionally we are stronger than ever before.
"Dance is how we came together and is the glue that has held us together for years now. We've danced on Broadway, the West End, we have five Strictly finals between us.
"We’re still the best of friends – we've got a lot of love and respect for each other. I still see Karen pretty much every day... we're always throwing ideas around and putting things together creatively.
"What we’ve found is that since we’ve been honest with each other about our relationship, we've unlocked this new wealth of creativity and we're taking our professional relationship to the next level now."
Karen added that they will be continuing with their tour saying: "We have such great chemistry and for us it's all about the storytelling and giving the best performance and entertaining and inspiring.
"At the end of the day it’s about giving back to our fans and we love dancing together so much. We’re feeling very positive and it's going to be one of the best tours."
Fans took to Twitter in their droves to praise them for continuing with the tour.
One wrote: "Full of admiration in the way you handled this, respect, good look with the tour, saw the opener of your first tour it was amazing hopefully catch this one somewhere."
The Sun reported how Kevin, 35, instigated the split after Karen had a fling with accountant Stuart Wood, 27.
Despite their split, the pair walked arm in arm as they filmed a tribute to Bruce Forsyth last month.
In recent weeks, Karen, 35, was seen looking very close to opera singer David Webb outside members' club Groucho in London.
On another occasion, the professional dancer was snapped holding hands with another man who had his arm around her shoulders.
The Sun previously reported how Karen had immediately ended her affair with 27-year-old Stuart Woods, after news of their fling broke in December.
A source said at the time: "Karen is extremely upset about the whole situation and is really struggling to accept that everything is over.
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"She has been pleading with Kevin to give things another go but he’s made it clear that he’s not interested and doesn’t want them to patch things up.
“He has definitely been the driving force behind them getting a divorce and surprisingly doesn’t seem as fussed as you might expect.
“She knows that she made a huge mistake by having a brief affair but there were problems in their marriage way before then.”
The Sun also revealed that both Karen and Kevin will be returning for the next series of Strictly Come Dancing after bosses considered axing her.
A source said: “Bosses are aware tensions between Kevin and Karen will be high so considered bringing one of them back to make things easier.
“However, after they decided not to bring back Brendan Cole, they didn’t want to risk any further backlash by getting rid of another established pro.
"Kevin and Karen will be professional on the show but it’s unlikely you’ll spot them happily standing next to each other on camera.”
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