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Amy Dowden has opened up about finding out she and her husband Ben Jones wouldn’t be able to have children naturally. The Strictly Come Dancing star also revealed that she and her spouse have created five embryos for when they’re eventually ready to start a family.
Amy, 33, was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023 before being told there was no longer any ‘evidence of the disease’ in February. After receiving her initial diagnosis, the Welsh dancer was advised there would be a two-week window in which she and Ben could create and freeze embryos for future use.
Speaking to Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews on his Big Fish podcast, Amy said: “In the words of ‘Sorry, Amy, you have cancer’, what I found harder was in the next sentence. You know, newly married, we’d only been married in July (2022), and this was only in the spring (2023) now.
“And his next sentence was, ‘And what’s your fertility plans because unfortunately, you’ve got a hormone-fed cancer’ – and I never knew anything about that – and basically, ‘We’re gonna have to shut down your hormones’.”
As per MailOnline, she continued to say that “children were on the radar or, you know, plans” for her and Ben and that it was a “double stab to the gut” to hear that she wouldn’t be able to give birth naturally.
“I found probably harder than the words ‘you have cancer’,” the star admitted.
Furthermore, Amy explained that she and Ben went ahead with an NHS service which allows cancer patients going through chemotherapy to freeze their eggs.
“Sometimes your body doesn’t respond, because you’re going through cancer,” she admitted. “I had a two-week window. And in that two week window, we managed.
“And so we got embryos. Now we’ve got five little Amy and Bens.”
However, due to the breast cancer that Amy was diagnosed with, she and her husband will have to wait to become pregnant.
“You do develop hormones when you’re pregnant. So yeah, obviously, it’s not when we plan to, but hopefully, I will get the opportunity to.”
Elsewhere in the candid conversation, Amy announced that there isn’t “enough awareness” of how undergoing chemotherapy can affect your chances of starting a family.
She added that she would now “never” go up to somebody who she knew had battled cancer and ask them if they’d be having children.
“I would now never go to somebody if I knew they had cancer or had had cancer, (and) say “are you planning on having children?”
Earlier this year, Ben opened up about his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis and described the last seven months as “very tough”.
Appearing on Lorraine in January, he said: “I tried to just remain as positive as possible.
“It is just a case of keep looking to the future and the positive things we can now do.”
Amy’s appearance on Spencer Matthew’s Big Fish podcast is expected to premiere during season four of the show.
Previous guests this season include former Top Gear star Richard Hammond, JLS’ Aston Merrygold and BBC Radio 2’s Romesh Ranganathan.
