Strictly’s ‘bruised’ Karen Carney reveals ‘promise’ to Carlos Gu as she admits show’s ‘changed’ her

The former footballer has already made it to week nine of the BBC One dance contest, the show’s annual Blackpool specia

View 3 Images

Strictly Come Dancing star Karen Carney(Image: Karen Carney Instagram)

Karen Carney has said she’s ‘just happy’ as she opened up about how Strictly Come Dancing has ‘changed’ her amid an epic appearance in Blackpool.

The former footballer was among the 15 celebrities who signed up to take part in the BBC One dance contest this year and after being paired with professional dancer Carlos Gu, the pair were seen making it through to the show’s annual Blackpool special.

On Saturday night (November 22), viewers will have watched a spectacular television display as the popular programme broadcast live from the seaside town’s famous Tower Ballroom, as has become tradition in the two decades the beloved programme has been on air.

Week nine of the competition saw the Strictly stars pack up their Elstree Studio in Hertfordshire and head north for one of the biggest TV spectacles of the year, and Karen and Carlos were excited to give everything they’ve got to their dramatic Paso Doble to ‘O Fortuna’ by Carmina Burana.

But reflecting on her experience when talking to the Manchester Evening News ahead of performing in Blackpool, Karen couldn’t have praised more for what the show – and Carlos has done for her over just a few short months.

“[The show has] massively changed me,” the Lioness admitted. “This fantastic man next to me has helped me grow with my confidence and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to do the show. I still speak to him about doing the Cha Cha, how that was so out of my comfort zone to do that and he gave me the confidence and the belief to do it and I’ll be forever grateful for Carlos for that.

“I definitely feel really weird, this is the first time in 30 years, well even longer than that, I’ve not done football in any capacity and so it’s been really interesting to to show the real me, be the real and not have a ball or a tactics board attached to me so that’s been something that’s been really really nice and again I’ll be forever grateful to Carlos for that as well.”

View 3 Images

Karen and Carlos are becoming firm favourites in the competition(Image: PA)

But as for how the changes will be implemented into her life going forward, Karen admitted: “I don’t know, maybe I’ll do less. I think what it’s made me realise is that I love my friends and family so much. They’ve all come out to support me. I’ve seen how many Lionesses have come out to support me.

“I’ve been retired six years and so many of them have come out and supported me and I just really miss them and I think I need to invest more time in my friends and family and that’s what I’ve really realised. We always realise it, but your actions have to speak louder than words and I think, you know, I probably will do that a lot more moving forward.”

Karen was recently named among the favourites to win Strictly. But with weeks still to go until the grand final, currently set for December 20, it’s not something the sportswoman has thought about. “Honestly, I’ve never thought about that and we don’t think about that,” she told us.

“We go, I’m from football. I’ve been in many games where I think, oh, we could go and do really well and then all of a sudden you’re knocked out by set piece or something. So we’ve always just spoken about enjoying it, taking each day, not necessarily each week as it comes. And like I’ve said many times, my football career just went like that because you can just get too far ahead. And I didn’t never, ever want to do so this experience with Carla. So we just go day by day.”

And it’s clear Strictly’s not for the faint-hearted, with Karen picking up a few physical knocks along the way. Carlos revealed: “This week her legs were bruised because of her some floorography, she’s going! She’s trying to, because I set the goal for her, I said, ‘If we want to do good, we need to do like this’, and she knows she has to teach that bar and by doing that she has to try try try and she’s never stopped.

View 3 Images

Carlos and Karen have became great friends through their Strictly experience(Image: Karen Carney Instagram)

“She wants to do really well and she really want to do herself proud and do me proud. So, I mean, that’s the best part actually, I love a sportsperson because they have such a great spirit and their work ethic in them and they just never stop and they work so hard.”

But being a sportsperson doesn’t mean Karen’s body is helping her along the way. She said: “I laugh about this a lot, everyone goes, ‘You know, you used to play sport, you should be really, really fit’. But also people forget we’ve been doing this for 20-odd years, if I was fit I’d still be playing, but I’m not.

“So I’m half broken, not from Strictly from football, and I have to keep reminding people that. I’d be still playing if I were good to go. So, look, it’s different challenges. I think we’ve opened up some of the challenges I have physically as well, but you know what, I go into what Carlos said, I promised him I would give him everything.

“That’s all I can ever give him. I will try my hardest. I’ll attack everything. I’ll never leave, I’ll leave everything out on the dance floor for him and just go for it. And we just said, what will be will be. And that’s all we’ve ever said. And I’ve loved every minute with this guy. I love dancing with him every Saturday. And I hope I get to dance many more Saturdays with him. So that’s the aim.”

Despite what may happen in the competition going forward, Karen couldn’t be happier. “I am just happy, I’m just really happy and ever dance I go out there and smile. You can see my teeth, apologies.”

And she’s not thinking about life beyond Strictly just yet. “Honestly, hand up my heart and you can speak to everyone around me, I’m in this at the moment because, genuinely, I can’t reiterate it enough, from the bottom of my heart, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Karen shared.

“I love this show and I tell him [Carlos] enough and he knows it. I’ve wanted to do this for so long and I’m doing it because I love this show, and I want it to do it. So, I don’t know what will come after this, and that isn’t the reason why I’m doing it. As I said, my reasons for me doing this show is I love it, to grow my confidence and to show a different side of me away from football.

“And hopefully, I’ve been my true authentic self and people have been able to see that, whether they like it or not, that’s me. So, yeah, for me that’s the aim.”