Celebrity Gogglebox is back for another year – and Paddy McGuinness has already used the show to confess to a surprise celebrity crush.
The Phoenix Nights and Max & Paddy star, 51, is sitting alongside fellow Boltonian and BBC Radio 2 DJ Vernon Kay for the new run of episodes.
Paddy and Vernon’s involvement in the new series of the TV reaction reality show was announced just hours before its returned on Friday, June 6.
And in that first episode of the new series, Paddy confessed to an unexpected celebrity crush that he says he wasn’t supposed to have.
The pair were watching clips of Countdown together when co-presenter Rachel Riley appeared on the screen to deliver one of the quiz show’s numeracy rounds.
At that point, Paddy spoke up: ‘There’s something about Rachel Riley. I don’t know what it is. You know when you have, like, a celebrity crush that you’re not supposed to have?’
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Joking about Paddy’s comment, Vernon remarked that ‘[Rachel] is a [Manchester] United fan,’ referencing the fact that Paddy and Vernon both support fellow Lancashire side Bolton Wanderers.
‘Oh, I’ve gone right off her!’, Paddy immediately shot back, jokingly deciding that Rachel’s choice of football team was enough to kill his crush stone dead.
Paddy was married to ex-wife Christine McGuinness (née Martin) between 2011 and 2024 – the couple had three children, including two twins, together across 13 years.
In 2022, it was announced that the couple had separated, but they would continue living in their family home together with 10-year-old twins Penelope and Leo, and seven-year-old Felicity.
The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2024, but they still live in the same house in order to make things easier for their children, who are all autistic.
On Loose Women, Christine explained to panellist Coleen Nolan that she and Paddy’s living arrangements were ‘the same as always’ and that they still spend Christmas together.
‘I don’t want the children going to different houses,’ she said. ‘And you know when they come home from school, they struggle with change anyway.’
In a new interview, Christine admitted that the divorce has been expensive, but she’s determined to be able to say: ‘I paid for my own divorce.’
During an appearance on The Shizzio Show podcast, she said: ‘There was times where it was fine and really civil, and we were agreeing on what we wanted and what we were going.
‘Then there was times where it felt like we were starting all the way back at the beginning. It’s the biggest bill I have ever paid in my life, and I will say that I paid for my own divorce, nobody else.’
Celebrity Gogglebox is back for its seventh season, with the first new episode available to watch on Channel 4 – each Celebrity Gogglebox season so far has had six episodes.
The first season of Celebrity Gogglebox premiered in 2019, and the show has run annually in June ever since, featuring famous faces from the world of showbiz and TV.
Watch Celebrity Gogglebox on Channel 4 on Fridays.
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