Karen Carney has revealed the real reason why she wanted to take part in Strictly Come Dancing.
The retired Lioness is currently appearing in this year’s series of the hit BBC show, competing with professional dancer Carlos Gu.
Now, as she prepares to perform her third live routine this weekend, Karen has opened up about her personal reasons for joining the Strictly cast.
Speaking on Women's Health UK’s ‘Just As Well’ podcast, the 38-year-old admitted that she wanted to rebuild her confidence after experiencing endless sexist abuse from football viewers.
Alongside her career as a Lioness, Karen has been a regular broadcaster for live football matches since 2019.
“I think I had it quite bad about four years ago, that was very, very challenging. But since then, whether you like it or not, you have to build resilience,” Karen detailed.
“And I think for me, my attitude - put my athlete hat on - is to be the best version of myself. Work as hard as I can, be a great team player, and actually what we learned in football was never to impress your manager, impress your teammates,” she recalled.
“So for me, if I'm next to someone like a Roy Keane or an Ian Wright, or whoever it might be, if they're happy with me and they know I worked hard, they know I've done my research, they know I've done my prep, then that's all that matters to me,” she continued.
'The rest, I can't control what people think about me. I genuinely can't. I've had to just go with that mindset,” Karen noted, before confirming that her confidence issues were the reason why she decided to take part in Strictly.
“Jesus Christ, it has knocked my confidence…it's why I wanted to do Strictly as well, to rebuild my confidence again because the negativity has crushed me,” she added.
Strictly Come Dancing continues this Saturday (October 11) on BBC One at 6:05pm.
