‘The hardest gig you’ll ever do’: Stacey Dooley admits she feels like she’s ‘failing’ as a parent
Documentary maker welcomed her daughter Minnie with boyfriend Kevin Clifton in January
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Your support makes all the difference.Stacey Dooley has spoken candidly about the challenges and pressures of parenthood.
In January, the documentary maker welcomed her first child, daughter Minnie, with boyfriend Kevin Clifton. The pair met when they competed together on Strictly Come Dancing in 2018.
Dooley, 36, has now given fans a look at her life as a parent in Family and Me, a new documentary as part of her Stacey Sleeps Over documentary series for the channel W.
Speaking ahead of the documentary’s release, Dooley sung Clifton’s praises, while admitting that motherhood had been the “hardest gig” she’d ever had.
Discussing whether the couple want more children, Dooley told The Sun: “Do you know what’s hilarious? You’re so tired and sometimes you really feel like you’re in the trenches, it’s a haze and you’re just trying to figure it all out.
“I think I would love to have more babies. But I said to Kev the other day, ‘Don’t you want to do this again?’. And he went, ‘Are you nuts? You’re over-tired!’... I’ve had one and am completely failing.”
Speaking with extreme honesty, Dooley said that it was “rare” for either her or Clifton to be washed.
“The sleep deprivation… to be perfectly honest, I completely underestimated. I had four hours last night, which is incredible,” she said.
“To say I have found the last couple of months easy would be totally disingenuous. I used to think people were exaggerating and being melodramatic when they were saying how hard it is.
“But, honest to God, it’s the hardest gig you’ll ever do.”
Dooley and Clifton met in 2018, when they danced together and won Strictly Come Dancing. Dooley was in a relationship with personal trainer Sam Tucknott at the time, while Clifton had recently split from his wife, fellow Strictly pro Karen Hauer.
Dooley announced that she had split from Tucknott in April 2019, sharing her relationship with Clifton not long after. However, she always insisted that there was no crossover between the pair.
The TV presenter announced her pregnancy in August 2022, sharing a Polaroid photo on Instagram as she cradled her bump with her hands.
“Gaaaaaaang... We are having a baby!” she captioned the picture. “So bloody delighted. Kev, you’re magic, I love youuuu.”
Dooley has previously spoken about the “chaotic” moment she took a pregnancy test in a toilet in Selfridges, only for it to come back positive.
“2022, the year I found out we were havin a baby,” she wrote. “I did a pregnancy test in Selfridges toilet and FaceTimed Kev in the back of a black cab.”
Dooley then added a screenshot of the moment she told Clifton she was pregnant over FaceTime.
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