Stacey Dooley has revealed that she brought her baby daughter to a legal brothel in Nevada while filming a documentary about prostitution in the United States.
Nevada is the only US state where prostitution is legal in licensed brothels. Dooley, 38, visited The Mustang Ranch as part of her Sky documentary Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over USA, which aired in March last year and explored the lives of sex workers in the country.
Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, south Wales, during a panel on work-life balance with journalist Emma Barnett, Dooley described the unusual experience of combining filming with motherhood.
“There’s nowhere that child hasn’t been,” she said, according to The Telegraph. “When she was eight months, we had this gig in the diary to go to the States to make a documentary about this legal brothel in Nevada.
“I’d sort of signed the contract and was like: oh, she’ll be eight months, that’ll be…”
Dooley gave birth to her daughter Minnie in January 2023 with her partner, dancer Kevin Clifton. fine. I’ll be fine to go to a legal brothel in Nevada!
“Anyway, the trip comes, and I’m nowhere near comfortable leaving her so I take my eight-month-old child to this brothel in Nevada.
“I have to ask the sheriff for special permission, because she’s under 18. It sounds like a comedy sketch, but it’s legit!
“I have to then rent a trailer to put [my child] in. Her dad stays in this trailer with Minnie looking out the window while I’m filming and then going back to the trailer to breastfeed Minnie, and all the girls [working at the brothel] are like: ‘Morning Miss Minnie!’
“I’m like: she’ll be open minded if nothing else!”
Dooley shares one child, Minnie, with her partner Kevin Clifton, a professional dancer with whom she won the 2018 series of Strictly Come Dancing.
The broadcaster recently fronted the BBC documentary Rape On Trial, which investigates delays in the justice system and the long waiting times faced by victims of rape and sexual assault.
She has also presented the Panorama episode Stacey Meets The IS Brides as well as the documentaries Stacey Dooley: Locked Up With The Lifers and Stacey Dooley: Stalkers.
In March, Dooley published a new book titled Dear Minnie: Conversations with Remarkable Mothers which explores the experience of motherhood.
Asked for her views on gender neutral language with terms like “chestfeeding”, Dooley said: “For me, I suppose I always try and prioritise other people’s feelings.
“And I’ve also had to be aware that even when having these kinds of conversations, I don’t want to ever equate motherhood to womanhood. That’s something I’m really clear about.
“I don’t think becoming a mum means you’re any more of a woman or any less of a woman.
“So for me, it’s all about trying to be aware of people’s opinions, and you know what their preferences would be while talking about my experiences.”
