Stacey Dooley shared her honest thoughts on working with her partner Kevin Clifton again, eight years after their Strictly Come Dancing win
Stacey Dooley shared her honest thoughts on working with her partner Kevin Clifton again, eight years after their Strictly Come Dancing win
09:31, 30 Apr 2026Updated 09:32, 30 Apr 2026
Stacey Dooley has opened up about working with her partner Kevin Clifton, following an “intense” time on Strictly Come Dancing. The pair first met on the BBC programme, which they triumphed in during 2018. After their win, they started dating and are now raising their three-year-old daughter, Minnie.
While juggling life as parents, the duo recently completed a UK-wide tour of 2:22 A Ghost Story. Looking back on collaborating once more, Stacey revealed that their Strictly journey had served them well for the challenge.
Speaking on Amy Jackson’s What’s The Tea with Amy podcast, she said: “I did it on my own last year in town and I loved it and then when we found out it was going on tour I was like, I wonder if there’s a world where me and Kev could play husband and wife?
“So, we pitched it and they were really up for it,” she added. Touching on the concerns that followed, the presenter continued: “Everyone was saying, when we were doing all the interviews, ‘How are you two not going to kill each other?’.”
After Amy noted that Minnie had accompanied them on the road, Stacey confessed it had been “nonstop”.
“Yeah, nonstop, different locations every week but actually, I can’t sit here and say there haven’t been times where he’s not driven me nuts, but on the whole, we’ve had a lovely time, it’s been a really sort of pleasant [time],” she added.
“We did Covid together and obviously we met on Strictly and so that was really intense.” Asked whether she had “the hots” for Kevin as soon as she met him, the 39-year-old confessed she had a “soft spot” for the professional dancer.
She gushed: “He’s such a gent, Kev, he’s such a goodie. The good thing about Kev, one of the good things, is he’s very sort of nonchalant and a bit aloof in the best way. He’s not easily impressed.
“I mean we were tight doing Strictly and that was intense and you’re with each other the whole time, then we got together properly and made a go of things in the new year and we’ve been together ever since.”
After their stint on tour, Stacey revealed she is now anticipating a “slightly quieter period” in her professional life. This follows the filming of a new series of her programme, Stacey Dooley: Sleeps Over.
During the series, the BBC presenter struggled to fight back tears as she opened up about suffering an ectopic pregnancy.
Speaking to the camera, she acknowledged that initially she had found it difficult to discuss what happened. Revisiting the subject on the podcast in January, she said: “I fell pregnant last year, and it didn’t go brilliantly.
“I couldn’t talk about it for such a long time without bursting into floods of tears. But now I can. It was ectopic and it was all dramatic.”
