While Stacey Dooley spends her time investigating other people’s lives, she’s also been very open about her own.
The TV presenter has become a household name thanks to her investigative documentaries – but the star has also shared some insights into her own personal life, including being a rebellious teen.
As her documentary Rape On Trial airs tonight, four women four young women shared their difficult, complex stories about reporting being raped by someone they know, in the three-year run-up to trial. The shocking documentary, fronted by Stacey shows as she breaks down as she speaks to the women about how hard it can be for someone to be convicted and how the system is failing women.
Ahead of her documentary, we take a look at the presenter’s life behind the screens, as she’s opened up about past struggles in her life, including shoplifting as a teen, and dating drug dealers.
The 38-year-old, from Luton, grasped the hearts of the nation since she was a teen when she took part in a BBC documentary Blood, Sweat and T-shirts, alongside other young fashion lovers. At age 20, she went on to star in her own hard-hitting documentary series and has fronted countless others in the following decade.
Her popularity with audiences saw her take home the Glitterball trophy on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018, where she also found love with partner Kevin Clifton after ditching her ex-boyfriend, personal trainer Sam Tucknott, whom she had been with for five years. Stacey and Kevin live together in a gorgeous London Edwardian home but are soon to be relocating to Bath with their two year old daughter, Minnie.
In a previous interview, she opened up on the shocking reality of her day-to-day as a teen, revealing how she was surrounded by drugs. “Drugs were always available when I was growing up in Luton. My pals did loads of gear. Everyone was taking pills and sniffing coke,” she revealed.
“Boys would take pills at school in their lunch break. I’ve witnessed people taking heroin. A boy I went out with was heavily involved with dealing coke. I remember going into his room one day and there were scales out and he was bagging it up. I’ve seen it all.” Harrowingly, the mum-of-one also revealed she had lost a friend ‘to smack before his 18th birthday.’
Recently, Stacey took part in another documentary as she uncovered the world of shoplifting as part of the BBC programme on the rise in retail theft in the UK, but also revealed she used to do it. “It would have been disingenuous not to mention it,” she said.
“There’s not a world where I could sit here and try and justify it, you know, there was no reason, there was no need for me to be out there behaving like that.” She said she would steal eyeliner and mascara when she was 13 or 14, and wasn’t “thinking about the girls on the shop floor” and “wasn’t thinking about anybody else other than myself”.
Stacey Dooley: Rape on Trial airs tonight at 9pm on BBC Three
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