Strictly’s Amy Dowden says ‘too soon’ to have children after cancer treatment

Welsh dancer Amy Dowden has said it would be “too dangerous now” to consider having children, after doctors found “no evidence” of cancer following tests last year.

The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 34, said previously that she had frozen her embryos, after going through a mastectomy and chemotherapy, and being “put in the menopause”.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, shortly after coming back from her honeymoon with husband Ben Jones.

Dowden explored her fertility and health issues in the 2024 BBC documentary Strictly Amy: Cancer And Me.

When asked about her fertility journey, Dowden told ITV’s Loose Women: “So at the moment it would be too soon.

“I had a hormone-fed cancer, so I have been put into early menopause and it would be too dangerous now to (fall pregnant).

“But I really want to be a mum, I’ve always wanted to be a mum. We do have five embryos, I hope one day, if it’s safe to do so, I do get the privilege and honour to be someone’s mummy.”

Dowden has been touring with the Strictly cast this year and will have an upcoming UK tour, called Amy & Carlos: Reborn, with her friend and Strictly professional Carlos Gu.

She said she “finished the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour last night, and I was so proud of myself, being able to do 10 shows a week, because I wasn’t sure my body was ever going to be capable of it”.

“Every day after chemo, you start feeling strong and better but it wasn’t really until December I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is what it feels like to have your energy and your strength back’. And I’m just so proud of how far I’ve come, and only in the last few weeks,” Dowden added.

“I look confident, but … I’ve spent most nights crying at your (Carlos’s) house, saying, ‘My body feels different, my dancing’s not as good, I don’t look or feel the same’, But actually, I really feel like Amy again, and I’m so proud of how far I’ve come.”

Last year, a foot injury prevented her from continuing in the Strictly competition with professional dancer Lauren Oakley stepping in for her, and making the final with her celebrity partner JLS star JB Gill.

Dowden said she was “absolutely devastated” to have “dancing taken away from me”, which happened after she skipped Strictly in 2023 due to undergoing cancer treatment.

She added: “The aim was to get back on the Strictly Come Dancing dance floor, I did. I got partnered with the incredible JB. I knew he could go all the way to the final, and then to have that taken away from me again … It was devastating.

“But you don’t get bitter, you get better and I was so proud he was able to continue with Lauren and make it all the way to the final.

“I’ve had to learn … to be patient and to be kind to myself, kind to my body, but also I’m determined that cancer and Crohn’s disease – it won’t define me, it doesn’t take away my passion, my talents, my love of what I do in life.”

In 2019, Dowden revealed she lived with Crohn’s disease and later fronted the BBC programme Strictly Amy: Crohn’s And Me, in which she spoke about her struggles with the condition.

Three years later, she was admitted to hospital in Manchester following a Crohn’s flare-up while on the Strictly live tour.