Strictly star Karen Carney's sad admission over abuse hell that left her 'physically sick'

Former England star Karen Carney is set to take to the dancefloor as a contestant on this year's Strictly Come Dancing. The 38-year-old is something of a national treasure having played for Chelsea, Arsenal, Birmingham City and the Lionesses. She is England's third most-capped player of all time with 144 caps.

However, she once opened up on the sickening abuse she received that left her feeling at her lowest, even after she was backed by her peers such as Gary Lineker. The TNT Sports star revealed she even considered taking her own life after receiving messages on X, formerly known as Twitter. It began as Carney discussed Leeds United while working on Amazon Prime for the club's 5-0 win against West Brom in December 2020. The ex-Arsenal winger said she was concerned that Leeds could end up getting promoted "because of Covid"and how the long break in the middle of 2020, enforced by the pandemic, provided the Whites with "a bit of respite".

Footage of Carney saying as such was then tweeted by Leeds' official account on X, complete with emojis and the caption: "Promoted because of Covid. Won the league by 10 points."

On the fallout that followed, Carney told BT Sport in May 2021: "I came off air and got in the car and remember saying to the guy who drives us home, 'It's kicking off,' and I felt physically sick. I was sat the whole night, until three or four in the morning, in this daze. It was horrible.

"I got a lot of stick for coming off of it [X]. Then you've got people around you saying stand up to it, banter back and have a bit of fun with it. The bottom line was to look after my mental health first. That was my priority."

She added: "It was relentless. I can't even describe it. People that know me know this is the job we do and choose to do it, but I'm low-key, a simple girl who loves football. I don't want to be bombarded on social media platforms. It wasn't for one hour, it was for three or four days and now it still comes up, people still send me abuse.

"Recently I've been on a lot of government calls with the social media platforms - but they don't understand. The people in charge of social media say, 'We're doing this, doing that,' but they don't understand, I'm just a number."

Carney even cited the late Love Island presenter Caroline Flack, who suffered from online abuse, and took her own life at the age of 40, in February 2020.

Carney claimed the scale of the abuse also forced her to consider ending her life. She said: "The only way I could make them understand was to say, 'Do you want another Caroline Flack on your hands?' Because that night that's how I felt, and in that moment I could understand why she did what she did, because I could have gone to that place.

"It's definitely changed me, the impact it's had on me. I've seen it with other pundits, I'm not just speaking about myself. About four years ago I got online abuse when I was playing, death and rape threats, leukaemia and things like that. When it happened at Christmas it was another trigger and I don't think my mental health has been the same since.

As for a solution to the widespread issue that is online abuse, Carney said: "I wouldn't mind seeing people who've been abused going to work for those platforms. The best way is to keep putting the message out there to stop those messages at source.

"Just be nice to people and if you don't like what we're saying, just turn over. Don't listen. There's no need to go on and abuse someone. We've probably more power to do this today than sit on a government call. If we can stop people at home from doing it, that's the quickest and easiest way."

Leeds issued a statement condemning the abuse but did not apologise or delete the tweet. Carney competed at four World Cups, four European Championships and the 2012 London Olympics. She retired in 2019 and was awarded an MBE in 2017 and OBE in 2024 for her services to football.

Speaking of performing on Strictly, she said: "I'm such a huge fan of the show and I can't believe I'm finally getting the chance to take part. I'm so excited to meet everyone and get dancing!"