Chloe Madeley has revealed she might have a rival for the affections of her new boyfriend, England rugby star James Haskell – her own mother.
The reality TV star, who is the daughter of daytime TV couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, has been dating the sportsman for eight months after they got chatting on social media.
She told Hello! magazine that James made quite an impression on her mother, saying: “The first time she met him, she whispered to me ‘If you don’t marry him, I will’.”
Chloe Madeley with boyfriend James Haskell (Hello! magazine)
But Chloe, who has appeared on shows including Dancing On Ice and The Jump, said they got together only with a bit of help from cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
She said: “I thought ‘If this guy is cracking on to me on social media, I’d better believe that I wasn’t the only girl he was doing that to’, so I had no interest in him at first.”
James, who plays his club rugby for Wasps, said: “I sent her a funny picture of SpongeBob looking glum over a cup of coffee with the message ‘This is me, still waiting for you to turn up for that coffee’. I think she found that quite cute.”
Chloe said: “When I saw that James was prepared to make a fool of himself for me in front of his 110,000 followers, I changed my mind and agreed to meet up. We bonded over dinner and green tea at a health food restaurant in central London.
“When he kissed me goodnight, it was game over.”
