Inside Kara Tointon's very different new life overseas after quitting the UK and double mastectomy
KARA Tointon has a wonderful life with her two kids in Norway after quitting the UK.
The former EastEnders actress yesterday revealed she had undergone surgery to have a double mastectomy as a preventative measure after finding out she carries the BRCA1 gene.
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That gene raises the risk of breast cancer and Kara told fans how she made the decision to have the operation after her mum died of ovarian cancer in 2018.
Kara posted an emotional video to Instagram where she described how she had both her breasts and her Fallopian tubes removed to lower her chances of getting breast cancer.
The mother-of-two, said her family was at the forefront of her mind when making the decision.
"I wasn't an easy decision, but one I am very glad that I made," she said.
Kara added later in the video: "I wanted to talk about it because hearing other people's experience, helped so much and knowledge is power, communication is key, getting to know our bodies, our cycles is only a good thing, but I'll be talking about this a lot more."
She is mum to Frey, six, and Helly, four, who she shares with ex-fiance Marius Jensen.
Kara and Marius got engaged in 2018 with plans of getting married in his Norwegian homeland, but split four years later.
While the exact date of her move to Norway is not known, Marius recently opened his own chiropractic clinic there after a few years in London.
The actress opened up on loving her life in the Nordic country.
"It happened really naturally as we were spending more and more time over here," she told the Daily Mail.
EastEnders and Strictly star Kara Tointon reveals she's undergone double mastectomy
"It's so easy to get back to London and it just seems to work."
She added: "It's such a beautiful country and a great place to bring up children and I'm definitely adapting to the Scandinavian lifestyle."
In 2024 she told the Mirror: "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. At the moment, we're settling into Norwegian lifestyle and loving it, so I'm lucky."
Despite their split, Kara and Marius stay in touch to co-parent their children.
Much of Kara's Instagram shows her life in Norway, including plenty of time fishing and enjoying the waterside with her kids.
The actress rose to fame on the BBC soap playing Dawn, a bright teen from an impoverished home.
Kara played Dawn for more than 300 episodes until 2009 after joining four years earlier.
She has plenty of film and TV credits under her belt, including the lead role in prestige series, The Teacher and Too Good To Be True.
In 2010, she won Strictly Come Dancing alongside professional dancer, Artem Chigvintsev.
Before joining EastEnders, Kara had dated Busted band member, James Bourne and even appeared in the band's reality series, America or Busted.
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