Toned Up's Karena Dawn Reveals a Troubled Past

The fitness guru opens up about her history of addiction.

By Hilary Hughes Jan 28, 2014, 10:13 AM ET

Big changes are afoot for best friends Karena Dawn and Katrina Hodgson: the business partners spend tons of time together between running ToneItUp.com and living under the same roof. And it looks like one huge part of their lives is going to undergo a major shift in coming episodes—and there's more to it than meets the eye.

On Thursday's episode of Toned Up, Karena opens up about why she's having trouble thinking about moving out of the house she shares with Kat and Kat's fiancé, Brian. It turns out that Karena battled some serious problems with addiction before she became an inspiring ambassador for healthy living, and those struggles have been on her mind now that she's facing some major personal changes.

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"A lot of people have their family problems, and a lot of people react to them very differently," she says. "And for me, I kind of stepped away from the healthy lifestyle, and I turned to addictions: drugs, just anything I could get my hands on. I think one day I was like, 'I know there's something else. And I know there's something better than this.'"

Karena doesn't want to move out, but it may be time for her to do so even though she may not be ready to move away from her best friend, who's been a major supporter of her.

"Kat knows everything about me, from my entire history, and she never once judged me for that," she says. "In the past, I've made a lot of changes because I wanted to. This is one of those things where it's not my decision, and that's why it's hard for me."

Do you think Karena should move out? How do you feel about her opening up about her past? Let us know in the comments.