Strictly Come Dancing finalist Karen Carney has admitted she begged BBC bosses to be exempt from an important show rule, but was warned she and Carlos Gu would be marked down
Karen Carney, who, alongside her dance partner Carlos Gu, is vying to claim the Glitterball trophy in the Strictly Come Dancing 2025 final, has revealed she previously received a sharp rebuke from BBC chiefs after attempting to dodge a crucial show regulation.
The former England footballer confided in Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill about her battles adjusting to the ballroom attire, with the high-heeled footwear proving particularly troublesome.
Karen, 38, stunned viewers with her remarkable opening week display. Yet she disclosed to Jessica during a November appearance on her Gold Minds podcast that her early triumph was actually down to performing in flat shoes.
She explained to the retired Olympic champion: “I think the Jive, the first dance, even the shoes were like football boots. So it was really comfortable and I was really comfortable in them… like, the last three dances, I’ve been in heels.”
Jessica, 39, interrupted to quiz the Lioness about her genuine feelings regarding dancing in heels. She mused: “I was going to say, like now, wearing heels and just going out for a night out, or just sitting having a meal, your feet absolutely kill.”
“And I was watching you thinking, how do you dance in heels now, are your feet in pieces after?” The star candidly replied: “Oh yeah, honestly, that in itself is like… my heels for last week didn’t come until the day before, so I’d only had a bit of time with them, so I was like, ‘I hope they don’t come’!”.
Karen then admitted she’d “begged” Strictly producers to let her skip the heels for one dance, but they cautioned the football pundit that she and Carlos would face lower scores from the panel if she “wore her black shoes”.
She went on: “I was, like, begging, I was like, ‘oh I hope they don’t come.’ And they were like, ‘if you wear your black shoes, which would look horrendous, you will get marked down’, and I was thinking, ‘yeah, but if I felt more comfortable and I dance better, would the marking actually balance itself out?'”.
“And they were like, ‘you cannot, it’s, like, the rules, you’ve got to wear them’. And I was like [sighs] and then [the shoes] came, and I was like, ugh!”.
Despite struggling to adapt to the footwear change, Karen has wowed both the Strictly panel and audiences with her performances on the BBC show.
Her self-assurance has also grown tremendously during the contest, with the star, who has endured cruel abuse from keyboard warriors as a football pundit, revealing: “For probably the last five or six years I’ve been open and honest about how I’ve been crushed quite a lot in terms of my confidence.”
She further stated: “Part of me was like, ‘if I could ever get the opportunity to throw myself into what I felt would be my heart, I knew that Strictly would be the thing that would fix me.”
Karen and Carlos will be competing against George Clarke and his partner Alexis Warr, as well as Amber Davies and her dance partner Nikita Kuzmin, in a bid to clinch this year’s Strictly crown.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Final airs tonight at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
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