Stacey Dooley’s life – difficult childhood, controversies and 'Strictly curse'

She is known for her impressive documentary series and success on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2018.

And Stacey Dooley has gone from strength to strength in recent years after she bought her first home with ballroom dancer Kevin Clifton and launched her new podcast on BBC Sounds.

Loyal viewers will remember the gorgeous redhead for her brilliant series of documentaries on BBC One which have raised awareness for current affairs issues affecting people around the world.

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the 35-year-old as the TV presenter has had her fair share of controversies over the years and has even opened up about her difficult family life online.

Now, the Daily Star has taken a look into the life of the successful movie maker as she celebrates her birthday today (March 9).

Difficult childhood

The auburn beauty was born in the heart of Luton, but it wasn’t an easy childhood for the youngster as she revealed her father left the family home when she was just two years old.

In her 2018 book, On The Front Line with Women Who Fight Back, the starlet confessed how her father was a struggling alcoholic and sadly passed away when she was in her mid 20s before she was able to reconcile with him.

But despite her absent father, Stacey explained how her mother more than made up for his absence throughout her childhood.

She wrote: “My mum went above and beyond to make up for the fact I didn’t have two parents. I was very lucky.

“My father had his demons; our relationship was difficult and fractured. But I don’t ever think ‘poor me’ I just feel blessed that I had my mother. She was such a great mum.”

Her mum Diana Niblock told the Mirror back in October 2018 how Stacey never truly had a bond with her father and was often sad about that “lost opportunity”.

She told the publication: “There was never a bond between Stacey and her dad. The circumstances prevented it.

“He was only living with her and me until she was two-and-a-half. It wasn’t until she was nine that she saw him again.

“He came back for the occasional wedding or family occasion. When he tried to come back in her life in a more meaningful way when she was aged 13 it was too late for them to reconcile.”

Luckily, Stacey went on to have a happy childhood when her mother met her now husband, Norman.

Together the pair welcomed a child together, Stacey’s younger sister, who both acted as bridesmaids at the couple’s wedding further down the line.

Documentary success

Stacey first found fame when she appeared on the BBC documentary series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts which aired on BBC Three back in 2008.

The fiery redhead was chosen as a participant to help illustrate a typical fashion-obsessed young person to showcase the social issues surrounding fast fashion.

While the crew were out filming in India, the journalist showed a keen interest in labour laws in developing countries which then led to the star presenting her own BBC series called Stacey Dooley Investigates just one year later.

Since then, the star has gone from strength to strength as she regularly produces gripping documentaries about social issues across the world.

And it’s clear to see that she puts her all into her work as she regularly injects her feminist views into a large portion of her shows on the air.

Over the years, she has travelled to Cambodia to explore sex trafficking, as well as Japan to understand the country’s financial crisis and the sexualisation of young girls.

In her more recent documentaries, the star even faced a member of ISIS in Iraq as she continues to showcase the true horrors overseas.

Back in 2018, Stacey was appointed as a Member of the Order if the British Empire (MBE) from the Queen in October.

Strictly curse

Prior to signing up to Strictly Come Dancing, Stacey was in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend Sam Tucknott.

The personal trainer and the journalist had been dating for more than five years before she joined the popular BBC One series before she was partnered up with professional dancer Kevin Clifton.

The gorgeous red head ended up grew close to her partner throughout the 14-week competition as the pair threw their all into the competition.

And it appeared as though all their hard work paid off as they went on to lift the glitterball trophy after they pipped Joe Sugg and Ashley Roberts to the post.

But after the competition ended the pair couldn’t help but keep in contact.

In April 2019, Stacey’s relationship came to an end and later that year she confirmed she was dating Kevin.

At the time, Sam accused the dancer of being a “rat” and a “snake” after he learned of their romance as he alleged their relationship had started while the pair were still dating, which has been denied.

In response to her ex’s accusations online, Stacey wrote on Twitter: “Anyone with any adult life experience knows there are two sides to every story.

“I haven’t got the time or energy to correct some of the utter nonsense I’ve read on here. Re Sam, I loved him very much and only wish him happiness and success going forward.”

In recent years, Stacey and Kevin have slowly started to open up about their relationship online after explaining to the Guardian that the pair prefer to keep their romance out of the papers.

She told the publication: “Kev and I have agreed not to go into too much detail about our private lives because you can’t really indulge that and then ask for privacy.”

TV controversies

Despite the TV star’s overwhelming success, Stacey hasn’t been able to avoid her fair share of controversies from her documentaries in the past.

Back in January 2019, Stacey was criticised for falsely portraying a Turkish woman as a Syrian sex worker living in Istanbul in her series Sex in Strange Places.

The misrepresentation in the show saw the Turkey episode of the documentary removed from BBC iPlayer.

And this wasn’t the only time her docu-series was slammed online, the Strictly winner was also criticised in August 2019 for calling a Muslim prayer an “IS salute” in a Panorama documentary about IS brides.

At the time a spokesperson for BBC confirmed that the clip had been removed from the documentary while the teaser clip had been edited.

Similarly, Gay to Straight – an episode about controversial conversion therapy from her In the USA series – is unable to watch on iPlayer while the other episodes from the series are.

The broadcaster faced backlash once again after she shared images of herself holding an African child on her Instagram account.

The snap was taken during a trip to Uganda which had been organised by Comic Relief, but the reporter was later accused of reinforcing white saviour stereotypes on her social media.

British MP David Lammy tweeted in response to a news story about her, saying: “The world does not need any more white saviours. As I’ve said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes.

“Let’s instead promote voices from across the continent of Africa and have serious debate.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk