Karen Carney, the finalist in the Strictly Come Dancing, has revealed that she has “begged” BBC bosses to let her make a change despite having issues with one of the issues.
Karen Carney, who, alongside her dance partner Carlos Gu, is in the running to lift the Glitterball trophy in the Strictly Come Dancing 2025 final, has admitted that she previously received a stern warning from BBC bosses after trying to get out of obeying a major show rule.
The former professional football player spoke to Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill about her struggles with adapting to the ballroom wardrobe, particularly high-heeled shoes, which were problematic.
Karen, 38, left fans taken aback by her impressive week one performance. However, she confessed to Jessica during a November appearance on her Gold Minds podcast that the secret to her success was actually taking to the dance floor in flats.
She explained to the retired Olympic athlete, “I believe the first dance, the Jive, even the shoes, were football boots.” So I felt really at ease in them, just like I did in my previous three dances.
Jessica, 39, yelled out a question to the Lioness about dancing in heels. She pondered: “Your feet absolutely kill. I was going to say, like, wearing heels and just going out for a night out, or just sitting with a meal.”
And I was watching you, “How do you dance in heels now, and your feet are breaking up after?”
The actress openly responded, “Oh yeah, honestly, that in itself is like… my heels for last week didn’t arrive until the day before, so I was like, “I hope they don’t come!”
Then, Karen confessed, “She begged Strictly bosses to allow her to skip wearing heels for one routine, but they warned the football pundit that her and Carlos’ scores from the judges would suffer if she” wore her black shoes.”
She continued, “I was begging, I was like, I hope they don’t come,” she continued. And they said, “If you wear your black shoes, which would look horrendous, you will get marked down,” and I was like, “Ok, but if I felt more comfortable and I danced better, would the marking actually balance itself out?”
They responded, “You can’t, it’s like, the rules, you have to wear them.” And I thought, “Ugh,” and then I sigh, and then the shoes arrived.
Karen impressed Strictly judges and viewers with her journey on the BBC series despite having trouble adapting to the change.
The star, who has faced cruel comments from online trolls as a football pundit, admitted: “For probably the next five or six years I’ve been open and honest about how I’ve been crushed quite a lot in terms of my confidence. I’ve also been soaring on leaps and bounds throughout the competition.
She continued, “I knew that Strictly would be the thing that would fix me if I ever had the chance to throw myself into what I believed would be my heart.”
Karen and Carlos are set to compete against George Clarke and his partner Alexis Warr, and Amber Davies and her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin in a bid to become this year’s Strictly champions.
Tonight at 7 p.m., Strictly Come Dancing: The Final will be streamed on BBC One and iPlayer.
Source: Mirror
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