Kara Tointon's New Life in Norway: From Strictly Winner to Scandinavian Mom

Kara Tointon may be playing a teacher going through a midlife crisis in her latest drama, but in real life the former Strictly winner says she feels like she's just hitting her stride at the age of 41.

She's been working since she was 11, famous since she was 16 and has that Strictly Glitterball trophy to cement her star status.

But she's found contentment a long way from her Essex upbringing – in Norway where no one recognises her and she's able to give her children an idyllic childhood away from the spotlight that's followed her for so many decades.

'I think getting older is such a gift,' says the former EastEnder. 'You have more experience, more knowledge and hopefully you learn to like yourself a bit more – you get to grips with all the bits you didn't like when you were younger. You realise how stupid those things were.

'I'm really enjoying getting older. I know we're in a world where people grapple with that but I feel like I'm learning to like myself more and hopefully becoming a more well-rounded person. A lot of the stuff people struggle with is down to circumstances – everyone has bad stuff happen to them and that can happen at any age. I think experience means you know how to deal with things and hopefully grow and build and get stronger from it.'

Two years ago things were tough for Kara, with her engagement to Norwegian chiropractor Marius Jensen, the father of her boys Frey, five, and Helly, three, seemingly over. But today she reveals the four of them are living together as a family in Norway where she's built a new life.

'I never expected to make a life here but I am loving it,' she says. 'We're bringing our kids up in Norway together. Being here is still quite new, it's early days, but it's working out really well. We thought we'd see how it goes, but so far so good.

'We spent most of last year in Norway as a base, I was going back and forth for work, and then we just decided to give it a go. It happened really naturally as we were spending more and more time over here. It's so easy to get back to London and it just seems to work.

'It's such a beautiful country and a great place to bring up children and I'm definitely adapting to the Scandinavian lifestyle. We live at the most Southern point and in the summer it's just beautiful. You'd never think of going to Norway for a beach holiday but we've spent most of the summer on the boat. The colour of the sky is incredible and the scenery is hypnotising.'

Learning the Language

Frey and Helly are already beginning to speak Norwegian and Kara is learning but she admits it's a struggle. 'Everyone speaks perfect English – even our little nine-year-old neighbour speaks fluent English – but I'm attempting to learn Norwegian. It's not going to be a quick thing. I'm usually pretty good at copying sounds but with Norwegian there's a whole different alphabet. I try and read to my kids and they just laugh at me because they already understand it really well. I do feel I'm getting the gist of it though – I'm a bit more comfortable with it, so we'll see.'

Balancing Family and Work

Work is still important to her, but she says getting her children settled is a priority. 'We've just had the most amazing summer together. My eldest is about to start school while my youngest is about to start at kindergarten. I've been back and forth for work meetings and I'm trying to have some balance in my life.'

It's a far cry from the life of Dani Oxley, the character she plays in The Teacher. Dani is an art teacher who's struggling in her marriage and feeling worn out after turning 40, but then makes a huge mistake. On a school field trip she has a secret tryst with another teacher while in charge of a group of sixth formers. But when she returns, she discovers one of the children is missing.

Gradually it emerges the child took out a kayak and has drowned. But there are many unanswered questions and the police begin a murder investigation which involves Dani, her lover Jimmy (Will Mellor) and her husband Tim (Emmett J. Scanlan) who's also a teacher at the school.

The first series of the Channel 5 show, which starred Sheridan Smith, was a huge hit and fans will be instantly hooked by the mysteries in this dramatic four-part tale. 'I've never played someone so controversially naughty,' says Kara. 'When my agent sent me the script I was quite shocked by the first ten pages, but also completely gripped and couldn't stop reading it. When we meet Dani she's in the middle of a midlife crisis. She's been in her marriage since she was quite young and she does something really outrageous.'

There are some intimate scenes in the show, which is set in the Lake District but was actually filmed in Ireland, and Kara admits she found it quite awkward working with the intimacy coordinator she and Will were offered.

'I'm quite new to this practice of an intimacy coordinator,' she says. 'I think it's such a great introduction for youngsters in the industry coming through but for those of us who have been doing it for a long time, it's actually a bit bizarre.

'Will and I just talked to our director, worked out a bit of choreography and then, you know, action. The intimacy coordinator oversaw everything and made sure we were happy and it was all good. Will and I are pretty similar so we laughed our way through it.'

Back to the Roots

Kara is no stranger to the limelight, having won Strictly in 2010 with Russian dancer Artem Chigvintsev, whom she went on to date for several years.

He later moved to America to the U.S. version of Strictly, Dancing With The Stars, where in 2017 he was partnered with his future wife, WWE star Nikki Bella. Last week he was arrested in California on suspicion of domestic violence – just days after he celebrated his two-year wedding anniversary.

Kara joined the cast of EastEnders in 2005 as Dawn Swann, a role she played for four years. Her first big role before the BBC soap was in Channel 4's Teachers and she actually went to art college before deciding to become a professional actress. She laughs that in many ways the role means she's gone full circle. 'At one point I was really interested in doing art for a job but at least this way I get to pretend to be doing it,' she says. 'This job is all I've really ever known and it's a bit of a rollercoaster life. I think like many women with children there's a lot of juggling but I'm trying to find a balance and thankfully, at the moment, it's working really well.'

The Teacher is at 9pm on Channel 5 from Monday, September 9 – Thursday, September 12.

Kara Tointon is starring in the new series of Channel 5's The Teacher and reveals that she flew between the set location in Ireland and her new Norwegian home during filming

Kara Tointon stars as an educator whose steamy night of passion with a colleague has disastrous consequences in series two of Channel 5's The Teacher. However in real life, mum-of-two Kara has made the life-changing decision to move her family out of the UK - and to mountainous Norway.

Kara, 41, shares sons Frey, five, and three year old Helly with chiropractor Marius Jenson, who she reportedly split from in October 2022. However, Kara has revealed that she now lives in Norway with her partner and their two sons. Speaking about filming her upcoming role in The Teacher, Kara revealed that she flew between Ireland - where the show was filmed - and her new home in Norway in between shoots.

"Now I have children so my priority is to be at home as much as possible. I live in Norway now - we've upped sticks and we're there," she said. "I travel back and forth, and in a way, I suppose I just I go with the peaks and troughs willingly because it gives me the opportunity to to be at home with my children."

She added: "At the moment, we're settling into Norwegian lifestyle and loving it, and, and so I'm lucky. As promiscuous as it is, I'm lucky that I get those big moments where I was getting back on a Saturday [to Norway] and going back on a Sunday to Dublin. It was intense for that moment, and but it was worth getting back just for that 24 hours."

Finding Balance

Kara went onto say that she gets to spend the whole summer with her children. "So it kind of in a way it works, but you've got to be able to make it work and find balance and I think we're all in a search for balance in our lives consistently."

Speaking about moving from London to Norway, Kara revealed that it's "early days" for her family. "We spent a lot of time there last year and we decided this year to give it a go. I love the Scandinavian lifestyle. It's very relaxed and having lived in London for most of my life, I think I just was finding family life really in intense.

"When we went there on holiday to see the family out there, because my kids are obviously half Norwegian, my partner's Norwegian. And so it was all of a sudden like I was able to breathe and have a bit of time. That was something we thought, 'Well, maybe we can make that work.'"

Kara added that her kids are "loving" Norwegian life and can understand the language completely. "They're not speaking it, but they're just starting to which is incredible. It does give me a jimmy up the a**s to get going because it's a hard language to learn. I'm attempting but when I read bedtime stories in Norwegian, my kids laugh their heads off."

The Teacher airs nightly from Monday 9th September at 9pm on Channel 5.