I’m begging Stacey Solomon to put an end to her reality show

Stacey Solomon is perhaps one of the unlikeliest celeb success stories of the last 20 years. 

She auditioned for The X Factor in 2009, and immediately it was obvious she was a star with a nice voice but not one that was ever going to set the charts on fire. 

In a first for the singing contest, Stacey was clearly destined for success because of her personality. 

She was an 18-year-old mum with a radiant giggle and the warmth of a creature comforts character. Unlike her rivals, she just seemed really happy to be there but after finishing third, behind Joe McElderry and Olly Murs her ambition caught people off guard. 

As a Loose Women panelist, social influencer and TV presenter, she’s carved out one of the most successful The X Factor careers when – by her own admission – her estimated £5million net-worth and growing empire is an outcome few would have expected. 

For the last 16 years, she’s barely put a foot wrong. She was caught smoking when pregnant, which ignited a slight backlash but was put out quicker than a teenager’s cigarette after being caught puffing behind the bike shed.

During an appearance on Loose Women in 2018, she was even brave enough to say she thought the royal family was pointless, stating they’re ‘just celebrities’. When challenged by her royalist panelists, Stacey was unperturbed and impressively questioned the staggering amount of money allocated to the royal family, the clip going viral again following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Few, if any, celebrities with such a traditional ITV background could make the same statement and not be chased out of the Loose Women studio with pitchforks, but Stacey is so universally loved it’s hard to imagine she could ever break the trust of the public. 

Now, at the pinnacle of her career, she has landed a spectacular television opportunity – a six-part docuseries on primetime BBC One following her life at her affectionately named Pickle Cottage with husband Joe Swash, her five children, and their miniature zoo of animals.

For many stars who have built careers from their winning personality alone, it’s the dream to have said dream air on classy BBC over ITVBe. 

However, when you’re riding as high as Stacey Solomon, there is very little to be gained and a lot to lose – as she’s perhaps starting to realise. 

Stacey and Joe is an unfiltered insight into their picture perfect life. They began the series proudly boasting they don’t rely on nannies or au pairs – they’re hands on and they really want us to know about it. 

The thing is, no one assumed they lived in the UK’s answer to The White House full of staff. Stacey’s shared enough of her life on social media that we know exactly how hands on she is, that she’s a fantastic mother with a heart as impressive as her business acumen. 

What did she really have left to prove?

Joe previously explained that it was ‘important’ for Stacey and Joe viewers to have an authentic portrayal of their relationship – ‘warts and all’. 

I appreciate the sentiment. Stacey’s built a career on presenting a perfect life with the perfect family and the reality is that isn’t always the case. If anything, the main theme of Stacey and Joe is that their marriage is often quite frustrating, and there’s more tension there than anyone realised. 

While Stacey balances building an empire and raising her sizeable family, it’s unclear what Joe contributes to Pickle Cottage. At one point, Joe returns from a fishing trip five hours late and she’s forced to sit in an important meeting about releasing her first fragrance while trying to entertain her three young kids. 

‘When I come back, I want to be Joe Swash – it’s an easy life,’ she later tells viewers, one of countless digs about her husband’s lack of motivation throughout the show. 

Subsequently, by showing us the ‘warts and all’, Joe has faced the brunt of the backlash and the illusion around their idyllic life has been somewhat shattered – but for what purpose? I don’t know if anyone at home would feel better about their own life watching the tensions of another marriage. 

It’s now been reported Stacey ‘is regretting signing up to do the show’. A source told The Sun: ‘She’s not used to the backlash they are getting as everything she touches normally turns to gold.’

Regardless, with healthy viewing figures averaging around the 3.5million mark, she’s been offered another series – and the BBC confirmed yesterday it’s going ahead. 

Surely though, they’ve already shared enough – or even too much.

During a recent episode, they even filmed their couple’s counselling, which completely defeats the point of therapy, sharing your most inner thoughts without judgement, and is way beyond anything the public should be privy to.

I don’t really know what reaction they thought the public would have about a series that was clearly built to create headlines about cracks in a relationship rather than celebrating everything she’s achieved and stands for. 

Of course, Stacey and Joe aren’t the first celebrity couple to put their family under the spotlight in such a sensational and presumably lucrative fashion. But for that reason alone, it’s a wonder why they’ve followed suit. 

The Osbournes wrote the rule book with their juggernaut MTV series that ran for four seasons in 2004 and took brand Osbourne to unthinkable new heights. 

Since then, so many have tried and failed to match their success – Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, or Katie Price and Peter Andre being perhaps the most notable. Even Lily Allen and David Harbour’s lives became a soap opera once she started sharing intimate details about their very private relationship on her podcast Miss Me?. 

Few families, if any, are happier for it. Even Sharon Osbourne, mastermind behind her family’s show, later admitted she was ‘disturbed’ but the reality TV series and regretted letting it air. 

It’s hard to see any benefit from airing your dirty laundry so publicly, even with a hefty paycheck. 

I adore Stacey and despite the edit on their show, I still really like Joe. He’s a good guy who loves their family, even if he doesn’t always get it right. 

But reality TV series like Stacey and Joe should be reserved for the celebrities who need it, who have absolutely nothing to lose, and can only hope to reclaim their glory days. 

Stacey is far from that – if anything, she’s still soaring with her hugely successful TV series Sort Your Life Out and her stroke of genius home renovation show that is nominated for a Bafta award this coming Sunday. 

Stacey’s built such a uniquely special career by being authentic. So I don’t feel she’d be any less authentic if we didn’t know about every single crack in her relationship that may have been dramatised for the sake of reality TV. 

Does the world need to know every detail about Stacey Solomon and her family? I honestly think her fans (and her, for that matter) would be better off without this show.

I adored the Stacey Solomon we knew before Stacey and Joe, I don’t need to know any more about her now than I did then.

Stacey is a rare TV personality who is so much better off without her own reality TV series. Honestly, whatever the money, she’d be foolish to film another series. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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