Stacey Dooley's old airport job, drug dealer ex and friend's tragic death

Stacey Dooley's career has been varied, to say the least, rising to fame as an investigative journalist and documentary presenter. She has also presented the BBC make-up contest Glow Up and lifted the famous glitterball on the sixteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing , but she was not always destined for a life in the limelight.

Stacey Dooley was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, and was raised on a council estate by her mum Diane. She said her career was kick-started following a chance appearance on a BBC Three documentary when she was just 20 years old. The documentary - called Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts - follows the stories of young fashion consumers on a journey to India, and Stacey was a stand-out character from the series.

Before she made her big break on the BBC documentary, Stacey had worked as a hairdresser before going on to work at Luton Airport selling perfume and waitressing on the side. She has also revealed that as a teenager she hung around with a group that would often dabble in drugs.

She told The Mirror: "Drugs were always available when I was growing up in Luton. My pals did loads of gear. Everyone was taking pills and sniffing coke."

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She added: "Boys would take pills at school in their lunch break, girlfriends did them after school, a boy I went about with was heavily involved with dealing coke.

"I've seen people sniff drugs. I've seen it all. I've seen people take heroin. We lost one of our pals to smack before his 18th birthday."

Though, Stacey has insisted that she never took them herself and admitted that whilst she drank and would smoke cigarettes she was cautious of 'losing control' if she participated in drugs.

One of Stacey's close friends died of a heroin overdose at the age of 18 and her mum placed a picture of Leah Betts, who died after taking an ecstasy pill at just 18 years old, on the fridge as a warning to a young Stacey not to take drugs.

Stacey's career has seen her look into some hard-hitting topics where her safety has been compromised and she has been praised for her level-headed bravery when covering the stories of people in dangerous situations.

She told The Guardian : "You have to be brave and ask the questions on the tip of your tongue. Sometimes, you’re cringing inside. But you can’t have people screaming at the screen the question you didn’t have the balls to ask.

"People can tell you to eff off and do all the time. If you tried to avoid people telling you to eff off you’d never get a decent interview."

Her fame from her tenacious documentary series led to Stacey being selected as a contestant on the 16th series of BBC's hit show Strictly Come Dancing .

She was paired with professional dancer Kevin Clifton and the pair started dating in 2017 after they won the competition together, beating Ashley Roberts, Faye Tozer, and Joe Sugg in the final.

Stacey will be back on TV at 10.45pm tonight on BBC One in a re-run of her investigation into living with the nuns of St Hilda's Priory Order of the Holy Paraclete in Whitby.