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Kevin Clifton: ‘I’ve never dated a Strictly contestant’

Kevin Clifton has never dated any of his ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ partners.
The thrice-married star’s celebrity dance partners on the BBC One show have included Susanna Reid, Louise Redknapp and Stacey Dooley and Kevin insists he has always kept his partnerships professional.
When asked if he had ever hooked up with one of his famous partners, he told The Sun: "No, never. You’re there to do a job and get on with the dancing. That’s what it’s about."
Kevin, 36, and his third wife – fellow ‘Strictly’ professional Karen – split in 2018 but he says the split was amicable and they never wanted show bosses to have to choose between them.
He said: "I’ve got so much respect for her. I just want her to be happy. She seems very happy and she came to my launch night of ‘Rock Of Ages’, which was great. We didn’t want it to become argumentative or this difficult thing that was happening. We wanted to be as adult as possible and be calm about it. We didn’t want to drive ourselves mad. We wanted to carry on working together at ‘Strictly’ and do our tour together.
"We’re in the same working environment. The idea that Strictly producers had to choose one or the other was never discussed — we were obviously happy to carry on working together. They are lovely and they came over and said, ‘Are you OK? Do you need anything from us?’ We said, ‘No, we’re good’."
Kevin recently opened up about his amicable relationship with Karen, telling ‘Lorraine’ that the pair are "really good friends".
He added: "We’ve still been dancing together, we did the tour together after that. And we worked together on ‘Strictly’.
"We do have a big respect for each other, and we just decided it didn’t have to be argumentative or difficult. We just thought, ‘Let’s stay friends, let’s work through it as calmly as possible and it’s all good’. We’re all fine.
"You’re always going to have love for each other and you just want to look out for each other."