Clare Craze said she never suspected a thing despite it being an open secret Kevin had kissed Karen, who later became his third wife
STRICTLY love rat Kevin Clifton’s former wife has revealed she took an overdose when he ruthlessly ended their marriage.
Clare Craze downed pills days after seeing partying Kevin rub up against dance partner Karen — who he went on to marry.
Clare, 39, said: “Everyone kept saying he had cheated on me.” Kevin is now dating Strictly-winning partner Stacey Dooley.
Clare said she had dismissed fears of Kevin flirting with fellow dancer Karen Hauer after seeing them dancing together sexily at a party.
It was only after he ditched her that she discovered “everyone was saying he had cheated on me with Karen” — with one friend saying they had been seen kissing.
Dancer Clare said she took an overdose days after Kevin, 36, told her their marriage was over. She said: “I spent the week begging him to meet up as I thought I could convince him to stay.
"I was shaking, in tears, and he got up and left.
“During that week I didn’t eat or sleep. My mother was so worried about me she took me to the doctor. It felt like all hope from my life had gone — it was overwhelming.
“Afterwards, I went to a bar and took a load of anxiety pills with another large glass of wine.
“My memory gets hazy then but my father told me afterwards I was found near Waterloo Bridge by passers-by who called an ambulance. I woke up in hospital on a drip.”
Less than a fortnight earlier, Clare and Kevin had gone to a party in Soho, central London, to mark the end of the West End run of dance show Burn The Floor.
Clare said: “We were at a bar called Punk for a private party and he wouldn’t answer his phone to come and get me at the door. He left me waiting for 45 minutes.
“When I did get in, he was behaving very, very strangely and was irritable that I was there. And Karen left as soon as I arrived.
“We went back to an afterparty at her rented apartment, and Karen was there.
“We were playing this game and they were tactile, rubbing up against each other and I remember thinking they looked good together, they looked like partners.”
Clare was so concerned about Kevin’s sensual dance routines that before this she had undergone sessions with a hypnotist.
She added: “It never dawned on me that he was flirting with her in front of me.
“I had been having hypnotherapy to deal with the pain and anxiety I was getting from seeing my husband dance with other women.
“When I watched him dancing, it always looked so sensual and romantic. I couldn’t get it out of my head, thinking I was watching him cheat on me with his dance partners.
“So when I saw him being tactile with Karen I just dismissed it. Then at 6am he told me to go, and he eventually got in at about 10am and went straight to bed.”
Two days later Kevin visited his parents in Grimsby, Lincs, and told them his marriage was over.
In the wake of the split, Clare lost two stone and in a bid to get over her heartache she flew to LA to stay with dance choreographer friend Peta Murgatroyd.
She said: “I was chatting to Peta about our split and explained that no one else was involved. At this point she burst into tears.
“She eventually told me about Karen and said everybody kept saying they had kissed while Burn The Floor was in London.
“It was the last thing on my mind. I actually asked him if he could be gay before I asked if there was anyone else involved. He said no to both.”
The year after the split, Kevin went public in his relationship with Venezuelan Karen, 37 — who also starred on Strictly.
Clare and Kevin had met at a salsa bar in 2005 and married in 2007 in her home town in Essex.
She said: “Kevin and I fell in love instantly and our wedding was the happiest day of my life.” But they split in 2010.
And Clare was devastated to discover that he recycled his speech from that day when he married Karen in 2015.
She explained: “I read an article about his speech. He loves football and it was a line about me being out of his league — he said the same to Karen.”
Clare also claims Kevin never told her about his first wife.
She read about his 2003 marriage to Russian dancer Anna Melnikova for the first time last year.
Kevin — who parted from Karen in 2017 — is now dating TV presenter Stacey Dooley, 32. She split from her long-term boyfriend after winning Strictly with Kevin last year.
But in The Sun on Sunday last week, Stacey’s ex Sam Tucknott branded Kevin a “snake” and accused him of stealing her.
Clare — who has never watched Strictly — believes his new romance with Stacey will delight Kevin’s parents Keith and Judy, who are former dance world champions.
Now a mother of one, Clare said: “Kevin is absolutely fame hungry. In the front room of their house they have what I call the Wall of Death.
“It has a whole series of photos and trophies of anything he has done competitively.
“It made me feel sick. Basically it was a wall of all his dancer ex-girlfriends. I hadn’t competed in Latin competitions which meant his parents never fully approved of me and I never made the wall.”
Clare added: “The dance world is extremely incestuous and the standards of what constitutes cheating are very confused — they are completely different.
"It is accepted that you can often end up with the person you are dancing with.
“It sometimes seems like Kevin has tried it on with almost everyone he has ever danced with, except his sister.”
LOUISE Redknapp is “part of the family” in a cosy picture with Kevin and his mum Judy.
Last week Louise, 44, insisted she had not spoken to her 2016 Strictly partner since before last September.
But she was snapped with the Clifton family at their December Christmas ball in Grimsby.
Louise split from hubby Jamie after dancing with Kevin.
A witness said: “Kevin was touching Louise’s knee and everyone presumed they were together.
The opinion was Louise seemed to be part of the family.”
