Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash have long been a couple people absolutely love, whether they’re sharing updates from Pickle Cottage or bickering when Joe pops in to help on Sort Your Life Out. But having a relationship that so many people are invested in inevitably takes a toll – something Stacey has spoken about candidly on the latest episode of the Sort Your Life Out Unpacked podcast.
‘Being in the public eye creates certain pressures,’ Stacey said. ‘But not on our relationship, because half the time, what they’re saying, if we know it’s not true, who cares? Who cares if the whole world is like: “Oh, they’re on the brink of divorce”?’
Stacey acknowledged, however, that any relationship has ups and downs. Like anyone else’s, her marriage takes effort to maintain. ‘Being in a relationship is hard,’ she told Dilly Carter. ‘I think when you’re in a relationship, it’s hard work. We’ve got three kids, we’ve got busy lives.’
ITV
One particularly relatable moment came when Stacey admitted that her attraction to her partner very much waxes and wanes – which is completely normal when you’re with someone long-term. ‘Sometimes I fancy the pants off him and can’t wait to come home to see him. Sometimes I’m like… get out of my stratosphere, stay away from me. I think we’re just like any other couple.’
Elsewhere on the podcast, Stacey discussed how she and Joe first got together, noting that while for Joe the attraction was instantaneous, for her it took a little longer. Referring to meeting after winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, Stacey shared: ‘I don’t even remember. He remembers that day vividly. He remembers everything I said in the interview, what I looked like, where I was going. I don’t remember any of it. I was like: “It’s a bit stalker-ish, Joe”.’
Jeff Spicer
When Dilly noted that it was ‘love at first sight for him’, Stacey confirmed it took a further three years for the couple to get together. She went on to comment that while they are ‘super privileged’, she thinks there’s ‘nothing interesting’ about her and Joe as a couple. ‘We are boring,’ said Stacey. ‘We are the most mundane celebrities you’ll ever meet. There’s nothing exciting about us. We’re not going to go to, like, fancy events. We’re just going to go home, clean up duck poo and argue with each other about beans on a sofa.’
On the podcast Stacey also shared a photo of herself and Joe paddleboarding (with Joe naked), which she decided to recycle rather than keeping or donating. In the keep pile was her collection of her children’s teeth, while a baton from her dancing days would be donated.
This isn’t the first time Stacey has opened up about the reality of her relationship. In an exclusive interview with Good Housekeeping last year, the TV host revealed how much she and her partner love a good argument: ‘I think the best thing to do in a relationship is fall out! Have that argument, say it out loud, communicate. Me and Joe love a good row – we’ll be fuming with each other, then we can laugh and get over it. But if we hold it in, it becomes uncomfortable. How can you not fall out with your husband? That’s a pipe dream!’
Stacey also confirmed in that interview that sometimes she and Joe sleep in separate beds – ‘I’m often in bed by 9pm while he’s up till 1am’ – and she’s completely unbothered by any criticism from people outside her marriage. She added: ‘Who cares? Marriage is just a construct and I’ll interpret it in a way that suits me and my family, thank you very much. We got together because we like each other. We have the same morals and values, so even if we do have a couple of months of, “F***ing hell, I can’t even look at you right now,” we’ll eventually remember why we got together in the first place.’
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