Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden has revealed that a fellow professional dancer body shamed her when she was younger. The 32-year-old, who is originally from Caerphilly, has suffered from Crohn's disease since she was a child and regularly raises awareness for the condition. Amy was talking ahead of the release of her new podcast, Amy Dowden: Body Shaming and Me, which is now available on BBC Sounds.
"I have experienced body shaming. I take steroids and it makes me put on weight," Amy said in an interview with the BBC, before adding: "I'm taking eight steroids a day to keep me out of hospital. When people online say "she has thunder thighs", it hurts. I've been dancing since I was eight years old and dance is part of who I am - but so too is Crohn's, which I've had since I was 11.
"I can remember doing a dance competition when I was about 19 or 20, I'd been on a really high dose of steroids and it bloated me a lot - and my face changed, I called it the guinea pig face. My costume was really tight. It took me a lot to get on the dancefloor. I remember walking onto the floor and this professional dancer shouted out "she's got a fat bottom" and a "thick middle" - well, that's the polite way of saying it. That comment has stayed with me for the rest of my life and when I go on steroids, it's the first thing I hear," Amy recalled.
