Carlos reflected on why he wasn’t given a partner on the show last year in an emotional confession during the live final

Amy Dowden took to Instagram to celebrate Carlos Gu and Karen Carney(Image: Instagram)

Amy Dowden paid a touching tribute to her dancing co-star Carlos Gu and his partner Karen Carney after their historic Strictly Come Dancing win.

The Welsh dancer, who sadly had to bow out of the show this year after revealing she was undergoing a second mastectomy, reflected on the win and revealed Carlos had learnt how to show his ‘true authentic self’.

It comes after Carlos admitted he hadn’t got a partner on the BBC show last year because he was all ‘me, me, me’.

Amy wrote: “They did it! What a night. All finalist were incredible! Congrats all!

“To my darling brother im so proud of you @gkx_carlos . I know how much you’ve loved this series, you’ve learnt, grown and shown your true authentic self!

“You wanted this for @kazcarney . Kaz you shone, thank you for being you, beautiful dancing but a wonderful soul! So happy for you both! Our new 2025 champions.”

Amy also revealed emotional chats between her and Carlos last year on the BBC show.

She added: “Last year Carlos and I would sit and get quite emotional many nights and I use to tell him 2025 sounds like a good year and I was right, what a year.

“@bbcstrictly thank you for another incredible series and for supporting me through and through xxxxx love you all deeply xxxx.”

It comes after Carlos admitted that when he joined Strictly in 2022 after competitive life, he was “self centred”, adding: “I was me, me, me…. no wonder I didn’t get a partner last year because I’m not grateful and she…”

The star – who was partnered with Molly Rainford in his debut year – then took a moment to gather his thoughts, as host Claudia replied: “No, no, no.”

Carlos continued: “I need to finish. She taught me how to be a kind, humble person and for the first time I learned to be a team player. I’m never a team player which I’m so sad about it.”

An emotional Claudia told him: “You’ve always been a team player, you have, and we love you and your partnership is everything.”