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Strictly’s Amy Dowden postpones wedding, continues to charm on dance floor

She and fiancé Ben got engaged in 2018

Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers don’t come any sweeter than Caerphilly-born sweetheart Amy Dowden, 31.

She joined the show back in 2017, reaching the final in 2019 when she was partnered with Karim Zeroual.

Last year she was teamed up with forces veteran JJ Chalmers – and Prince Harry even sent the pair a message of good luck!

Amy started dancing at the tender age of eight.

And, in 2017, she and fiancé Ben Jones became the first all-British pair to win the British National Latin Dance Championships in more than 30 years.

The couple announced their engagement in 2018, but the big day sadly had to be postponed.

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Amy Dowden is confirmed as one of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers (Credit: BBC)

Why did Strictly Come Dancing pro Amy postpone her wedding?

Ben got down on one knee at a New Year’s Eve party in 2018 and the pair quickly began planning their big day.

However, it was scheduled for last summer, when COVID restrictions limited the number of people able to attend.

Read more: Katya Jones reflects on ‘challenging’ split from husband Neil

As a result of the pandemic, and with fears for her family, Amy announced the wedding had been postponed.

She’d even picked her bridesmaids – fellow Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers Oti Mabuse and Dianne Buswell.

Amy and Ben – who run a dance school together in Dudley – haven’t revealed the new date of their nuptials.

However, we reckon when they do say their vows, she will make the most beautiful bride.

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A post shared by Amy-Dowden (@amy_dowden)

Strictly Come Dancing dancers: What disease does Amy Dowden have?

Amy has suffered from Crohn’s disease since she was a child.

In May 2019, she spoke out about the effect the condition has had on her career as a professional dancer.

Read more: Strictly’s Luba Mushtuk ‘denied’ celebrity partner, but is it good news for Neil Jones?

She said: “My health dictated so much of my life from the age of 11.

“I had these enormous plans for doing things, and I just wanted to get on with my life, just push it to one side and say: ‘I’m Amy the dancer, not Amy with Crohn’s disease.'”

Last October 2020, a documentary aired on BBC Cymru Wales about her experience of living with the condition.

Strictly Amy: Crohn’s and Me will premiere on BBC One on August 27 and see Amy experience a flare up that required hospitalisation in the midst of the pandemic.

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Viewers will see Amy in hospital during the documentary (Credit: BBC)

What will we see in the Strictly Amy documentary?

Amy told Metro the documentary showed her at her “most vulnerable” when she was admitted to hospital.

She said: “People see me on Strictly and I’m on the telly – you know all the glitz and glam, diamanté and the spotlights. So then actually showing what Crohn’s can do to you, that was really important for people to see me when I’m most vulnerable.

“It was hard, don’t get me wrong. I was so scared and nervous for people to see me like that in hospital, with my lips really dry and often I was so poorly and vomiting into buckets and being thrown in an ambulance.

“But I think it was really important to highlight that for other sufferers and not to kind of skim over it and show it at its truest.”

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Amy allowed the cameras to film her at her most vulnerable (Credit: BBC)

What is Crohn’s disease?

Crohn’s is a long-term condition where the gut becomes inflamed.

It’s painful and typically a condition that the sufferer has for life.

It causes excruciating stomach pain, severe diarrhoea, exhaustion and malnutrition.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor