Joe Swash's 'naughty days' before settling down with 'love of his life' Stacey
Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon have become one of the most beloved celebrity couples around, with many swooning over their adorable social media snaps and updates.
But before becoming a devoted dad and settling down with his stunning wife, who he has called the 'love of his life', Joe had a bit of a reputation for being a hell-raiser.
The 41-year-old was known as 'the Swashbuckler' in his EastEnders heyday on account of his partying and success with the ladies.
But at one point, frustrated bosses at the BBC One soap were forced to ask the actor to rein it in.
"Before EastEnders I'd been the ginger kid. Being famous was like a superpower," he explained to The Mirror in 2014.
EastEnders' Jake Wood's snap of son has fans pointing out the pair's likeness
"I was like a kid in a sweet shop – I could get into places I never could before, girls were talking to me, so for the first two years I made a name for myself as being quite naughty."
Joe Swash and Emma Sophocleous (WireImage)But his carefree world came crashing down in 2005 when he was struck down with viral meningoencephalitis which causes swelling of the brain.
His then-girlfriend, Emma Sophocleous found him in bed, partially paralysed and unable to talk.
She frantically called 999 and Joe wound up in intensive care, with his family warned to prepare for the worst.
"The doctors said they weren't sure I would pull through. It was so scary. Before, I thought I could do all this mad stuff. But it made me realise life is fragile," he told The Sun.
After six nail-biting weeks Joe was finally deemed well enough to return home but was forced to take three months unpaid leave to undergo gruelling rehabilitation to restore his speech.
Following the health scare, things looked to be on the up for Emma and Joe as they got engaged and then welcomed a son, called Harry, in June 2007.
He was axed from EastEnders in 2008 (BBC)
He went bankrupt in 2009 (S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)However, the 'calmer' chapter of his life didn't last long, as he was axed from EastEnders in 2008, when producers ran out of storylines for his character.
Out of work, he plunged into a spiral of debt after being 'irresponsible' with his wages from the show and went bankrupt in 2009.
This happened again in 2013 as well.
EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy shows off grey hair and says 'it doesn't matter'
"I was chucking [money] away on stuff I didn't need. I went out every night and had a house with a mortgage," he said to The Sun.
"When you are young you just don't think it is ever going to end. I thought I was going to be on EastEnders for years and years."
"I buried my head in the sand which was the worst thing to do. I should have faced up to it," he continued.
"The second time it happened I was on TV and I felt embarrassed and wondered how I managed to get myself into the situation. But it can happen to anybody."
Joe dated his former co-star, Kara (PA)
He said their split was his own fault (UK Press via Getty Images)And things took a turn for the worse when his engagement came to an abrupt end in 2008 when their son was just seven months old.
Party planner Emma accused him of dumping her in favour of clubbing, telling The News Of The World: "My only fault is that I didn’t like nightclubs and I’m a 'boring mum'."
Joe, however, insisted they'd been arguing and decided to split as "amicably as possible" for the sake of their son.
With no job or relationship, Joe decided to head Down Under to star in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in November 2008.
And after being crowned King of the Jungle, it seems he was able. tofind love once more, with his former EastEnders co-star, Kara Tointon.
They first met in 2005 when Kara, 36, joined as Mickey's sister Dawn Swann, but she dated co-star James Alexandrou (Martin Fowler) for a year, and also had a relationship with Busted rocker, James Bourne.
And he could hardly believe his luck, telling Now magazine he was 'punching well above' his weight.
"It's going really well," he gushed. "She's beautiful and we get on great.
Kara was equally smitten, revealing she had marriage on her mind and even hoped to start a family with the actor.
The star has called Stacey the 'love of his life' (staceysolomon/Instagram)
They have a blended family (Instagram)But cracks reportedly started to show when the couple starred in Snow White at Bristol's Hippodrome in 2009.
Sources claimed the pair were having epic rows behind the scenes of the panto, prompting Kara to issue a denial, insisting: "We're very happy together, everything's going really well, but you'll have to ask him when we're getting married."
However, in May 2010, the devastated actress pulled the plug and apparently fled to Marbella with friends to 'get her head together'.
"She is really upset - there have been a lot of tears," an insider claimed at the time.
"Both she and Joe are really upset about it - but their rows were getting too frequent and they knew they couldn't make it work anymore."
While Kara has never dished the dirt on why their relationship crumbled, Joe admitted he was to blame.
"It was all down to me, and nothing to do with Kara," the lovesick star confessed.
"She genuinely does everything right. It was my fault it broke down. I didn't know what I had until she was gone."
And when Kara moved on with her Strictly Come Dancing partner Artem Chigvintsev later that year, a repentant Joe was distraught.
"It hurt so much when I read they might be an item. I wanted to watch Strictly to support her but I knew it was going to rip my heart out," he said at the time.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw she was with Artem. He's a Russian hunk with muscles bulging out everywhere. Why couldn't they have given her Anton, or that little Italian dude who thinks he's a stallion?!"
The pair are very happyFearing he'd be left on the shelf, Joe told The Mirror he desperately wanted more kids but "just can't see if happening for me."
But all that changed in 2016 when it emerged he was dating fellow I'm A Celebrity winner, Stacey Solomon - the woman he has hailed the 'love of [his] life'.
The pair first met in 2010, when Stacey won IU'm A Celeb and Joe was hosting the ITV2 spin-off in Australia. They instantly became friends but didn't start dating until much later.
Joe admitted he fancied the X Factor star early on, but as she was in a relationship when they met, the timing wasn't right.
Eventually the stars all aligned for the pair and they got together, with Stacey telling Hello! in 2017: "It’' going really, really well. I'm so happy. Everyone says we're made for each other. We are like the same person, we come from really similar backgrounds and we've got so much in common. He's absolutely lovely, I'm so lucky."
The pair have since formed a blended family, with Joe's son Harry being joined by Stacey's two sons Zachary and Leighton, before they had their own children together, a boy named Rex and two girls named Rose and Belle.
Joe and Stacey got engaged in December 2020 after being together for five years. He is said to have popped the question on Christmas Eve in her "favourite place in the world".
They married in a small ceremony at their £1.2million home in Essex, which has become known as Pickle Cottage.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
