Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash have been accused of flouting BBC guidelines – but is there any truth to the claims?
The complaints were raised after the broadcast of their reality TV show, Stacey & Joe, which also stars their youngest children, Rex, Rose and Belle, Stacey’s first son with ex-boyfriend Dean Cox, Zach, and her son Leighton with ex-fiancé Aaron Barnham.
It aims to show how Stacey, 35, and Joe, 43, balance family life at their £1,200,000 mansion in Essex with their work schedules and passion projects, such as building a two-acre fishing lake.
However, it has been claimed that Stacey and Joe have plugged their own businesses, contradicting BBC guidelines which state ‘no on-air talent should promote products, goods, services or clothing they use on air’.
But what products have they supposedly promoted?
In the first episode, Stacey is filmed creating social media content for an unnamed clothing line.
She explained: ‘I’m going to be trying on my last summer collection.
I love doing telly so much, but then I love all the other stuff I do. So I have brand partnerships and design different things for those brands, anything from homeware to clothing lines.’
In the third episode, she is captured transforming her house into a haunted Halloween mansion for a launch party for her ASDA homeware collection, At Home With Stacey Solomon.
She explained: ‘When teams like ASDA want you to invite influencers, it’s always to try and spread the campaign and get the message out there. But you’ve got no guarantees: no one is obliged to post anything or say anything.’
But despite Stacey & Joe containing references to their other ventures, a BBC spokesperson told Metro they were not breaching guidelines because it is ‘editorially justified’ in a reality TV show meant to faithfully track their day-to-day life.
They explained: ‘Stacey & Joe is a reality series following the daily lives of the couple, which includes their work. All commercial relationships featured are made clear to the audience and only included where editorially justified.’
It’s also understood that grumblings over clips of Joe outside his sister Shana Swash’s coffee shop Swash & Jones are unjustified because he has no ownership or commercial interest in the business.
Despite massing a reported £6.5 million fortune, Stacey previously revealed their children won’t be getting a generous inheritance.
‘We don’t have inherited wealth that we can pass down for generations,’ Stacey told The Mirror.
‘It’s really important for them to know that this is our career and we will support our family in whichever way we can, but eventually they are their own person.’
She added: ‘They’re going to have their own lives and they need to have their own dreams, careers and that doesn’t come from us giving them everything. It’s a constant battle.’
Stacey and former EastEnders actor Joe have been together since 2016 after they met while appearing on the 10th series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2010.
They have been married since 2022.
Stacey & Joe is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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