Dame Arlene Phillips has revealed how she was treated as a ‘curiosity’ by doctors when she gave birth at 47, with one hospital even asking if students could study her pregnancy.

The former Strictly Come Dancing judge recalled how she was repeatedly warned about the dangers of pregnancy at her age and was told at a mother and baby class that she would struggle to bond with her child.

Speaking on the It Can’t Just Be Me podcast, the 81-year-old said: ‘Everyone that I knew was excited and thrilled.

‘The biggest problem was the way that I was treated by the medical profession because I was older, they kept saying how dangerous it was.’

The choreographer recalled being asked by a hospital if students could observe her pregnancy.

‘I was asked at one of the places when I was seeing which hospital I wanted to use, they were like “We’ve got 12 students, can we document this with our 12 students on a path from now to birth?” she said.

Dame Arlene Phillips has revealed how she was treated as a ‘curiosity’ by doctors when she gave birth at 47, with one hospital even asking if students could study her pregnancy

The former Strictly Come Dancing judge recalled how she was repeatedly warned about the dangers of pregnancy at her age (pictured with her oldest daughter Alana, 45, in 2014)

The mother-of-two daughters, Alana, 45, and Abi, 34, was preparing to travel to Hollywood for a film project at the time.

She said: ‘Listen, I’m not even ready to have this baby, I’m still getting it in my head.’

Podcast host Anna Richardson shared her shock at the treatment, asking: ‘So they treated you more as a curiosity and an aberration?’

‘Definitely,’ the dancer replied.

She also described how, after giving birth, she attended a mother and baby class focused on bonding, only to be approached by a professor who whispered to her:

‘Please don’t worry if you’re not bonding with your baby, it is quite usual for someone who actually should be a grandparent to find it hard to bond with their baby.’

She added: ‘Here am I with my beautiful baby who was everything. I never wanted to put her down.

‘Needless to say, I never went back to the class.’

Speaking on the It Can’t Just Be Me podcast, the 81-year-old said: ‘Everyone that I knew was excited and thrilled. ‘The biggest problem was the way that I was treated by the medical profession because I was older (pictured in 2013)

Alana’s father is Danny Noble, who Arlene married when she was 18, and he was 27. The pair separated shortly after Alana’s birth in 1979.

The choreographer and dancer reminisced about her pregnancy with her eldest daughter in an Instagram post in 2022, sharing a childhood pH๏τo of Alana in a ballet tutu as she marked her 43rd birthday.

‘In 1979 I discovered I was pregnant and set to choreograph a big Hollywood film but to my joy I had a two week hiatus on the film when my baby was due to be born and like the trooper I was flew from New York back to Los Angeles for the birth where after I was about to head into twelve weeks of filming,’ Arlene wrote.

‘Since then this baby has brought so much happiness to my life and today I wish her the most beautiful of birthdays and say thank you.’

Speaking to the Daily Mail in a joint interview with Alana in 2011, Arlene explained how in her eldest’s early years she was a pushy mother.

‘I’d always been driven, whether it was my determination to make it as a dancer, even though I was not the most naturally talented girl, or aiming to become one of the world’s most successful choreographers.’

The choreographer and dancer reminisced about her pregnancy with her eldest daughter in an Instagram post in 2022, sharing a childhood pH๏τo of Alana in a ballet tutu 

‘But now I was driven for my daughter, and I had very fixed ideas about the sort of child I wanted her to be.’

‘Perhaps, subconsciously, I wanted to show I could achieve everything a conventional two-parent family could. ‘

It was only when she met her now-partner Angus Ion in 1985 when Alana was six did she realise how much she as pushing her young daughter.

‘He’s much more laid back and early on in our relationship urged me to take my foot off the pedal a bit when it came to parenting,’ she said of Angus’ influence.

Arlene and Angus went on to have daughter Abi.