Inside Strictly star Kevin Clifton’s rocky romances before Stacey Dooley pregnancy

HE is set to become a father for the first time with Stacey Dooley, but Kevin Clifton has had a rocky road to his happily ever after.

The 39-year-old former Strictly star has in fact been married three times before meeting Stacey on the show in 2018 and finding love.

Grimsby native Kevin was first married at 20 to an unnamed dancer.

Love didn’t last on this occasion when she left him three years later after he turned his back on competitive ballroom dancing.

Some sources have rumoured Kevin’s first wife was his then Latin dance partner, Anna Melnikova, but this has not been confirmed.

Reflecting on his first marriage, he told MailOnline that he fell into depression when it broke down.

He said: “We got to a stage where we were at the top of our game but we hadn’t won a world championship.

“We were approached and told that if we paid the right people, took certain classes with certain pro teachers, we would be guaranteed the title.

“It would cost more than £10,000 in all and I just felt somewhere it had all gone wrong. My parents believed we could win without it but I wanted to walk away from the whole thing.

“I fell out of love with it. My wife divorced me because it was her life. I fell into depression because everything I’d put my life into had burst apart.”

Overcoming his heartbreak, Kevin went on to marry fellow dancer Clare Craze in 2007 when he was 24.

Although it wasn’t meant to be again for the dancer when the pair split in 2010 but their divorced wasn’t finalised until 2013.

Discussing his second divorce, he said: “It didn’t work out. It was part of my rebellion and we drifted apart.”

In 2015, Kevin hoped third time was the charm when got married to Karen Clifton, 40.  

The dance star got down on one knee during their performance on Burn the Floor to propose to her on her birthday.

But the couple confirmed their split in March 2018 after two years of marriage although have remained on amicable terms and have continued to work professionally together on Strictly.

While Kevin has been unlucky in love, two of his former celebrity dance partners have also fallen foul of the Strictly ‘curse’.

In 2013, he was partnered with Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid, 48, who saw her 15-year relationship with partner Dominic Cotton collapse after becoming a runner up on the show.

Then he danced with Eternal singer Louise Redknapp, who split from her footballer husband Jamie after 19 years of marriage as the show came to an end in 2015.

Kevin and Stacey announced their exciting baby news yesterday, with the documentary maker writing: “We are having a baby!” she wrote under the photo. “So bloody delighted. Kev, you’re magic. I love you.

“Was becoming impossible to hide and if one more person asks me if I’ve had my t*ts done in LA I’m gonna scream. Here goes.”