The pair married in a stunning ceremony in the garden of their Essex home, dubbed Pickle Cottage, in 2022
Stacey Solomon has opened up about the ‘biggest issue’ she and her husband Joe Swash have in their marriage.
The pair married in a stunning ceremony in the garden of their Essex home, dubbed Pickle Cottage, in 2022, two-and-a-half years after they got engaged.
Joe, 43, and Stacey, 35, met when she was crowned ‘Queen of the Jungle’ in 2010’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. Joe, who had won the ITV reality series himself in 2008, was on presenting duties on the show’s spin-off programme so was one of the first to get to speak to Stacey after she left the jungle.
But their relationship actually didn’t blossom until they started dating in 2016. They then began working together on the I’m A Celeb ITV2 spin-off later that year and gained a huge legion of fans. Stacey then revealed that she and Joe were expecting their first child together in 2019 and their son, Rex, was born in May that year.
Joe proposed during a romantic woodland walk on Christmas Eve, 2020 and on October 4 2021, on Stacey’s 32nd birthday, she announced that she had given birth to the couple’s first daughter, Rose, that same day.
Then, the newly married pair gave fans a surprise later that year when they shared how they were expecting their third child together and Belle was born in February 2023.
Now, Stacey and Joe have opened up their home to the cameras for the very first time last year for their own BBC One programme, Stacey & Joe, which has been airing on a Tuesday night since April 1.
The show follows them as well as their children in what has been described as a “refreshing, honest take on their modern blended family”.
It was in a teaser for next week’s instalment of Stacey & Joe that hinted at tense scenes between the pair as they sit down together to talk following Joe’s Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis.
During therapy, Loose Women star Stacey, 35, tells her husband: “You fail to recognise anything that I’m saying to you.” But Presenter and actor Joe is shown remarking: “I’ve heard nothing but negative stuff.”
According to The Sun, the couple will sit down with counsellor Natalie Corbett and have a tense exchange about communication in their marriage. In the scenes, former EastEnders star Joe tells his wife: “All I am doing is trying to dedicate myself to my family and do everything I possibly can, every minute of the day.
“Then to sit here and listen to the fact that I am a huge problem — all I am hearing is that I am a huge problem in Stacey’s perfect life.’
Stacey then replies: “I would say this is our biggest issue in our whole relationship. I cannot say anything without you taking it so personally as an attack on you as a whole person.”
Meanwhile, promoting the show via an interview with The Sunday Times, Joe and Stacey insisted they weren’t trying to portray a fake, glamorised marriage just for the sake of the series.
Opening up to the weekend paper, Joe said: “We haven’t got all the answers. Our kids throw tantrums just the same as everybody else’s. We argue, but it’s generally for the right reasons — because we’re trying to sort out what’s best for the kids and our family.”
Going into detail about the show, he shared: “We aren’t trying to portray a glamorous lifestyle. Bringing up a family these days isn’t easy and we all make mistakes. But you admit your mistake, learn from it and move on.”
Praising his wife, Joe added: “Without her, the house would fall apart.” And he then said: “I know that being with me can’t be easy. I was on my own for years and lived like a student, eating takeaways, only doing the washing up when I ran out of plates. Stacey has organised me and the kids and the whole thing.”
