Kara Tointon is back on our screens in Channel 5’s The Teacher – but the former EastEnders star has had a busy life off-screen, including a string of famous exes
Kara Tointon is the star of the latest series of The Teacher – and she has had a busy life off-camera. The current series focuses on art teacher Dani, who has an affair with a colleague as a school child goes missing.
As circumstances take a dark twist, the art teacher finds herself risking it all and deceiving her family and her close friends. The Teacher is Kara’s latest role after she played a struggling mum in Channel 5’s drama Too Good To Be True.
The ex-EastEnders star first appeared on our screens as an extra on the soap back in 1994, before playing the role of Dawn Swann from 2005 to 2009. She had an affair with Phil Mitchell before she departed with her partner Garry on a boat.
The Strictly Come Dancing champion has also bagged a number of other big roles and dated some well-known stars. Here’s what we know about Kara Tointon’s life and her new life abroad in Norway.
What is Kara Tointon’s career and most famous roles?
Born and bred in Basildon, Essex, Kara Tointon always dreamt of becoming an actress. Tointon is best known for her four-year stint as Dawn Swann in EastEnders. Dawn was at the heart of many dramatic storylines in the soap, including being held captive while pregnant by May Wright and Rob Minter, her relationship with Garry Hobbs, and later an affair with Phil Mitchell.
Kara Tointon, who left Walford to broaden her acting horizons, has since starred in the final series of The Bill as Ami Ryan and graced the stage in roles such as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, Evelyn in Absent Friends and Giny in Relatively Speaking at Wyndham’s Theatre.
She portrayed Kate Middleton in The Windsors West End production and Maria in ITV’s live rendition of The Sound of Music Live. In 2010, she partnered with Artem Chigvintsev on Strictly Come Dancing Series 8, where they danced their way to victory, earning the first 10 of the series and consistently topping the leaderboard.
The actress also featured in the ITV drama Mr Selfridge and was recently seen in Father Brown and Channel 5’s thriller Too Good to Be True.
Tointon presented her own BBC Three documentary about her personal experience with dyslexia, titled Kara Tointon: Don’t Call Me Stupid. She opened up about her struggles with reading and revealed that she had the reading age of a 12 year old as she explored the impact of dyslexia on people’s lives.
Is Kara Tointon married? Kara and her famous exes
The Basildon-born actress has had relationships with several of her EastEnders co-stars. She was previously involved with James Alexandrou, who played Martin Fowler.
After their breakup, she dated James Bourne from pop rock band Busted. Later, she was romantically linked with co-star Joe Swash, now married to Stacey Solomon and known for his role as Mickey Miller in the BBC soap.
She once shared the stage with her then-beau Joe Swash in a Snow White pantomime at Bristol’s Hippodrome back in 2009, but their relationship ended amidst rumours of backstage disputes.
Her desire for marital bliss with her co-star eventually led her to find love on Strictly Come Dancing. In 2010, she joined the Strictly troupe and was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev, but their romance fizzled out after four years.
In a chat with The Telegraph, Kara disclosed that she wanted to focus on her upcoming role in Mr Selfridge, a period drama. From 2015 to 2016, she played the character of Rosalie De Bolotoff.
Kara crossed paths with Marius Jensen, a Norwegian chiropractor, in 2016 and they got engaged two years later. The couple are parents to two children, Frey, who is now five, and Helly, who is three.
However, reports emerged in October 2022 that Kara and Marius had parted ways before tying the knot.
New life abroad and away from UK
Kara, 41, shares sons Frey, five, and three year old Helly with chiropractor Marius Jenson. She 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.”
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.”
Who is Kara’s famous sister?
Kara isn’t the only successful actress in the family – her sister, Hannah Tointon, has also made a name for herself. The 36 year old is recognised for her roles as Katy Fox in Hollyoaks, Tara Brown in The Inbetweeners, Kiki in The Hour and The Midwich Cuckoos.
The Tointon sisters even shared screen time in the third series of Mr Selfridge, playing Harry Selfridge’s daughters. Hannah has also showcased her acting chops in the West End, taking over the role of Dawn in Waitress in December 2019.
Hannah has been cohabiting with her partner Joe Thomas, known for his role as Simon Cooper in The Inbetweeners, in London since 2012. The couple got engaged in 2017 and celebrated the arrival of their first child together in October 2022.
