Strictly's Amy Dowden shares emotional moment with twin over body confidence
What did you miss?
Amy Dowden and her twin shared an emotional hug after the Strictly star revealed her body confidence was so low amid her cancer diagnosis that she didn’t want to go out of her front door.
The Strictly pro and her sister Rebecca tackled the issue of body confidence by heading to Sweden to try a Swedish sauna, sharing the experience in a touching segment on ITV’s Lorraine. In the clip, Amy told how weight gain and hair loss as a result of medication and chemotherapy had taken its toll on the way she felt about her appearance.
“I absolutely hated myself,” she said in the moving interview.
What, how and why?
The segment saw Amy and Rebecca visit the sauna, which people often use naked. The star said it was “such a shame that, especially in the UK, body confidence impacts so many people” but confessed it was out of her comfort zone.
She said: “I'm one of those people and people probably look at me and think, ‘Why?’ But, you know, since a young age going on steroids with my Crohn's Disease and how much it would affect my face, put on weight. Especially in the last year when, during chemo, I put on two stone, and that was from the treatment I was having, from not being able to dance. And also losing my hair.”
“I absolutely hated myself,” said the dancer. “I didn't want to leave the front door.
"But then I think actually, being stripped of everything made me realise that beauty comes from within. And actually it doesn't matter what shape or size you are or how you look. It doesn't define you as a person. It doesn't take away any talent you have and you know, everyone should be accepted.”
She went on: “And actually the fact that I'm still here and alive, you know, that gives me confidence. And I wish I guess I could tell my younger self that you are beautiful, you are strong. Just go on and live and be confident, be yourself.”
Rebecca said when she was growing up, being a twin “kind of constantly put pressure on us, both being compared to each other”.
Plus, she said, when Amy continued to dance and she moved in a different direction herself, her body started to change. “But I think over the years now I've learned to embrace that and accept that actually we are all beautiful,” she said.
Amy Dowden’s health journey
Amy was 19 when she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, which the NHS says is "a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed".
Then in May 2023 she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32. Just weeks later she told fans she had received a second cancer diagnosis. She had a mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy, documenting her progress on social media.
She missed Strictly last year after her cancer diagnosis, but it has been confirmed that she will be back on the dancefloor when the new series starts.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 14 September at 7.20pm.
