Spoiler alert…not everything you see on TV is real (shock horror).
That being said, when a reality show follows a celebrity couple’s journey from engagement to their wedding day, you would kind of expect that to be authentic.
Enter Olivia Attwood and Bradley Dack, a reality star and football player combination that had very much inserted itself into the UK’s famous faces roster and filled countless column inches and social media feeds.
However, it now turns out (reportedly) that the pair never actually signed on the dotted line and certified their marriage, leaving some fans and viewers feeling slightly duped.
Since appearing on Love Island Olivia Attwood has become a staple of British TV. Credit: PA
Let’s take a few steps back. Olivia Attwood first found herself in the spotlight on Love Island in 2017.
Since then, she’s established herself as a staple on ITV. The 34-year-old has fronted documentaries, appeared on reality shows and is a regular panellist on Loose Women.
In 2019, Attwood got engaged to footballer Bradley Dack. Given her high follower-count online and growing prominence on-screen, ITV commissioned a show to follow the couple’s journey down the aisle.
Olivia Meets Her Match & Olivia Marries Her Match filmed a combined 17 episodes.
Now comes the drama! One that’s a bit like a loose thread, the more you pick at it, the more it unravels.
The final episode of the series showed an opulent wedding in June 2023. No expense spared as the couple ‘tied the knot’ at the Bvlgari Hotel in London.
Attwood and Dack split up earlier this year. The reasons for which I’ll let you surmise from a deep dive on the trusty ol’ internet.
What’s come to light since their split is that the fancy hotel they got ‘married’ at on camera almost three years ago didn’t have a marriage licence at the time.
Reports suggest that their wedding planner tried to get one for the venue but couldn’t secure it in time.
So, it’s claimed an appointment was booked to complete all the paperwork at a registry office in Cheshire, six weeks later.
However, this was cancelled after Attwood allegedly discovered ‘a number of mistruths’, according to a source familiar with the situation.
What does that mean? Well, if the rumours are true then they never actually got married.
Despite Attwood using Dack’s surname on-air and on her social media platforms (until recently), the suggestion is that since fans saw them get married, the duo have acted like they’re married, but that isn’t the case.
They’ve no doubt benefited financially from the ITV show and the subsequent belief that they are indeed husband and wife.
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ITV has chosen not to comment on the issue, but it’s being reported widely that the broadcaster wasn’t familiar that their star presenter and her ‘husband’ weren’t legally married until the tabloid newspapers started writing about it in late March 2026.
Will ITV face any Ofcom complaints for misleading viewers? Well, no…the timeframe to complain about a show is 20 working days after it’s been broadcast, and ITV showed the programme the same year Attwood and Dack were believed to have gotten married, 2023.
Social media comments would lead me to believe that many are displeased with the revelations about the couple and criticise them for not being more open and honest about what has allegedly happened in the weeks/months/years since their ‘wedding.’
Neither Dack nor Attwood has replied to our request for comment, but Olivia is currently abroad filming a new series for ITV.
She’s been light-heartedly posting about the trip, but she’s definitely going to face some tough questions when she returns to the UK.
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