Singer Jake Carter and professional dancer Karen Byrne met and fell in love after they took home the glitter ball on Dancing With the Stars in 2018. Still very much a team, they, along with dog Lenny, sit down with Janice Butler to talk about combining careers, what makes the relationship work and their hopes for the future.
It's the day after Orchestra night on this year’s Dancing With the Stars, but pro dancer on the show, Karen Byrne, looks incredibly fresh following what must have been a long night on the shiny floor show. With just a couple of weeks left in this season, Karen is hopeful that she and her dance partner, the Paralympian Jason Smyth, are within grasp of that Glitterball trophy.
I meet Karen and her boyfriend of over five years, singer and performer, Jake Carter, outside a west Dublin coffee shop. It’s a bright, sunny morning, so we sit outside on a bench with their beloved dog Lenny nestling between them.
The pair met on Dancing With the Stars in 2018 when Jake (25), was teamed with Kare (30), and they took home the Glitterball trophy; it’s the only time she’s won the show and it’s something he jokingly likes to remind her of. "She only has the one win, with me," he laughs.
"He loves throwing that back at me," she adds. "I secretly don’t want her to win with anyone else so I can keep saying that I was the reason we won," he adds, winding her up some more.
Does he still go to the live show every week?
"No, he’s sick of it," laughs Karen. "I went this week because it was Orchestra Week, but normally I’ll just meet them after because it clashes with the football, so I can’t do the two," he laughs.
This year Karen, who's originally from Ballyfermot in west Dublin, has been teamed with Paralympian Jason Smyth, who is blind, and she has been astounded by his ability and attitude. "I say it every week; I think he’s amazing. If any of us were told to close our eyes and try to even walk down the road, we’d struggle, so for him to come in week after week and learn a dance, is just remarkable. I’m in awe of him," she says.
"I grew up with my sister in a wheelchair and I never thought she was any different to anyone else, so I think I took that same approach with Jason."
She changed her approach to teaching with Jason, learning a lot about herself along the way. "Normally with my dance partner on the show, I will get them to look in the mirror or I’ll send them videos to watch themselves back, but you can’t do that with Jason. He has to trust what I say and the feedback I give. But I’m as hard on him as I would be on anyone else; he’s an athlete so he knows what it means to win.
"He has taught me what we take for granted in our every day; he's changed how I think about everything. After seven years on the show, it has really challenged me too. I’ve had to completely change how I teach."
The last couple of months have been very demanding timewise for Jake and Karen as a couple; with Karen fully immersed in Dancing With the Stars since November and Jake fresh off the Christmas panto run and a new album, Point of View, released this week.
They have been like "passing ships. It’s all a bit nuts really," says Jake. "We have the stage school also, Karen has the dance school and I’ve the music and singing school, so it’s always a bit hectic, but it’s good. I think we enjoy being busy," he adds.
"I think when we’re not busy we don’t know what to do with ourselves. It’s a real Irish thing, isn’t it; you moan when you’re busy and when you’ve time off," chimes in Karen.
Karen opened her dance studio in 2020 just before lockdown, which of course brought its challenges. Jake then came on board and with their combined talents, they offer a triple threat: cover singing, dancing and musical instruments. The school has become a hive of creativity.
"Karen has three different studios and then there’s a music room so throughout the week, there could be Irish dancers in, auditions going on, bands practicing; it’s a real hub for the arts," says Jake. "Some kids don’t love school and that’s OK, this is like their little escape and it’s so good for them," adds Karen.
While he’s been singing, performing and writing songs since he was 16, Jake’s new album, Point of View, is the first time he’s released a large body of music. Younger brother of country music star Nathan Carter, the Liverpool native says that while his sibling’s success has been integral in showing him the ropes, his style of music is more pop and he’s eager for people to separate him from Nathan.
"Still to this day when we’re sending out singles to radio stations, they will say it’s not really our vibe and you know they haven’t listened to it. They just see the name Carter and think it’s country music and that can be annoying sometimes. But on the other hand, I don’t think I would be where I am without the support of Nathan. It’s been a crazy rollercoaster and I kind of enjoy – not proving people wrong – but showing them what it is I do," he says.
Nathan is eight years older than Jake and he says their musical influences growing up in Liverpool were very different. "I was always much more into pop music. My Mam used to run a parish centre and they would get the showbands in and that was what Nathan was exposed to, but she had moved on from that by the time I was a teenager, so my influences were very much pop bands."
He’s written all the tracks on his new album and he’s excited to tour the country later this year to show them off. "I’ve had these tracks for years and years. A lot of them were written during lockdown but it was very hard to release music at that stage because you couldn’t get out and tour with it and promote it. It’s great to have new music out; I do other things like acting and TV, but music is my main passion. I love gigging and this album is a bit like re-starting for me after Covid and showing people what kind of music I can do."
One of the tracks, Loved Me Like You Do was released on St Valentine’s Day: is it about Karen? "I tell everyone it’s about Lenny," he laughs. "But I did tell her on Valentine’s Day that it’s about her."
As for their own love story, Jake admits he fancied Karen when they were competing on Dancing With the Stars, and after the show wrapped up, they found they were missing one another. A few months later, he asked her out to a concert and the rest is history. "I always liked her," he smiles.
"He definitely liked me quicker than I liked him," laughs Karen. "When I’m on the show, I’m very much in teacher mode. I wouldn’t have been thinking of him like that. It was when we finished the show that I missed seeing him every day; that’s when I knew I liked him."
At the time, Jake lived with Nathan in his house in Enniskillen, before moving in with Karen, but he still visits his brother most weeks. She jokes that she didn’t have to do too much to domesticate him when he moved in.
"You know what? Jake is very domesticated now. I think he did all the housework when he was living with Nathan. I did have to teach him how to cook but he does all the washing and cleaning with us."
Karen, who started dancing when she was six, had a connection to Liverpool long before she met Jake. As a competing ballroom dancer in her teens, she convinced her parents and school principal to let her travel to the UK city to compete with a male dance partner as she couldn’t find one in Ireland. "I flew over every Thursday evening and came home on a Sunday. My poor Mam when I look back on it! I did it for about three years. I knew Liverpool like the back of my hand," she says.
"It makes sense you ended up with a Scouser so," laughs Jake.
Spending even a short amount of time with Karen and Jake, I can tell they’re a good team and they would say so themselves. "I’m a procrastinator and Jake is more ‘Let’s just do it.’ He’s pushed me to do stuff I would never have done," says Karen.
"We’re very supportive of each other and I think that’s why it works. I want to see him achieve and vice versa. I still feel like the relationship is only new, the time has flown. I always wonder what would have been had we not met on the show," she adds. "We should have our wedding on the show," laughs Jake. "Have the judges give us scores as we walk down the aisle."
While marriage isn’t on the cards just yet, they’re hoping to buy their first home soon, but as both are self-employed, it’s a difficult ask in the current housing environment. As well as their stage school business, they are also running a dance retreat this summer in Marbella, following a successful first launch last year. They’ll be taking a well-earned break after Dancing With the Stars and before a busy summer. "We’re going to Cancun for a week – I won’t go any longer because I don’t like to leave Lenny. I get separation anxiety. My Mam will mind him, he’s treated like a baby in her house too," she laughs.
"When we get back, it’s back to the stage school show, the dance retreat and back into the studio as well, so it’s busy," says Jake. "We’ll cherish that time away together."
