As Christine McGuinness quits Celebs Go Dating, Channel 4 has reportedly settled on how to address her absence from the new series.
The former beauty queen, 37, who split from Paddy McGuinness in 2022 after 11 years of marriage, was set to film a new series of the E4 show after saying she was open to meeting both men and women on the programme, it’s been said.
She was due to be joining former Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona, Jon Lee of S Club 7 fame, and Too Hot to Handle’s Louis Russell.
However, in a statement on Instagram in April she confirmed she had exited the show: ‘I joined Celebs Go Dating with great intentions but have realised that dating on a public platform and the attention that brings is just too soon for me.
‘They’ve said the door is always open for me which I’m so grateful but for now I’m returning home to my family.’
Although there was speculation that Celebrity Big Brother’s Chris Hughes could replace her, it now appears no one will be taking her place.
An insider told The Sun that a third person will not be joining newcomers The Chase’s Mark Labbett and Made In Chelsea’s Sam Prince.
The source explained: ‘Channel 4 bosses were considering replacing Christine McGuinness but have ultimately decided not to.
‘Obviously, they toyed with putting Chris Hughes in the mix but then he changed his mind, and they felt like that would have made the line-up too male-heavy anyway.’
They added that production didn’t want to ‘scramble’ to find someone of Christine’s ‘calibre’ since that took months to pull off and wanted to avoid too many ‘latecomers’ as it ‘didn’t make sense’.
Christine’s exit comes after a source told The Sun that she was ready to move on after finalising her divorce last year.
‘When she signed up to Celebs Go Dating, the production team were told she was open to dating women as well as men,’ the source said.
‘She has filmed scenes for the show already where she spoke with both women and men at a mixer -where the celebs mingle with the public who sign up for dates.
‘Christine met a woman there, and she is flying to Ibiza with her next week for more filming.
‘Taking part in a TV show about finding love is all new for Christine, but she’s just having fun and is enjoying herself.’
Ahead of her appearance on the new upcoming series, Christine also spoke to The Sun and said she was ‘going to have a summer of fun’.
‘I’ve not dated much before, so I feel like I’m doing a crash course. I’m looking forward to getting to know the other celebs and the coaching side of things.’
Christine has said in the past that she was ‘petrified’ of dating again, given that her relationship with Paddy was all she had known for a long time.
Speaking on Vicky Pattison’s podcast The Secret To… in December 2022, Christine added that she and Paddy ‘talk an awful lot’, so she’s in the loop with his love life.
She shared: ‘We’re very open. He has said to me when he’s been going on a date.
‘We still live in the same house. But I think both of us right now, we’re very much in the same place, where we’re just, like, just don’t really know what to do or where to go.’
The mum-of-three continued: ‘We’ve been in this [relationship] for 16 years. I’ve been with him since I was 19, so my dating history before him was an absolute mess, then I’ve had this lovely long marriage.’
‘I kind of don’t really know where to go, where to start, and he’s the same, he’s very much the same,’ she confessed about moving on with someone new.
Metro has reached out to Channel 4 for comment.
This article was first published on April 26.
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