SHE won the hearts of the nation sorting out our lives, but now it seems Stacey Solomon might be in need of a little help herself.
The one-time queen of the I’m A Celebrity jungle is facing unprecedented backlash over her latest reality TV show.
And the reaction from critics has got her worried.
Down-to-earth Stacey has already gained millions of fans — and millions of pounds in the bank — sharing her seemingly perfect life online.
But her Kardashian-style telly six-parter, Stacey & Joe — which shows the star’s marriage to Joe Swash has hit a rocky patch — might have revealed just a bit too much.
It has also been panned for sailing close to the wind on BBC advertising rules after the couple openly promoted everything from haircare ranges to their Instagram accounts.
Now, friends say that 35-year-old year old Stacey fears taking part may have been a mistake.
A source told The Sun: “Stacey is regretting signing up to do the show.
“She’s not used to the backlash they are getting as everything she touches normally turns to gold.”
Stacey has certainly enjoyed a stratospheric rise since she first appeared as a 19-year-old single mum on X Factor in 2009, before writing books, making TV shows and landing lucrative deals with the likes of Asda, Jet2 and Primark.
She met Joe in 2010 when she won I’m A Celebrity, and he was presenting spin-off show I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! NOW!
But while her Instagram account is littered with picture-perfect images of their life together with Stacey’s children from previous relationships — Zachary, 17, Leighton, 12 — plus the couple’s three kids, Rex, five, Rose, three, and two-year-old Belle, the show reveals the reality is somewhat different.
Stacey Solomon clashes with husband Joe Swash as they reveal relationship struggles in therapy
The family’s £1.3million mock Tudor mansion Pickle Cottage, with a swimming pool and glorious grounds, may be the stuff of fairy-tales.
However, the fly-on-the-wall show reveals the stars are having relationship counselling and, away from the camera, Joe stomped off after one intense session.
The Sun on Sunday revealed how Stacey was left in tears outside the therapy centre and had to be comforted by a TV crew member.
Joe told the counsellor: “All I’m hearing is that I’m this huge problem in Stacey’s perfect life.
“I don’t hear no positive stuff about me.”
If he is looking for good feedback, Joe better steer clear of some of the show’s reviews which have lambasted his lack of domestic skills.
Our own legendary TV critic, Ally Ross, described Stacey as “a smart, likeable, hard-headed, multi-millionaire businesswoman who, as well as being a mum of five is also full-time carer to Joe Swash”. Ouch!
Joe was recently diagnosed with ADHD, which seemingly makes it hard for him to keep on top of his schedule.
He describes it as being “always one step behind time”.
And fans have watched Stacey grow increasingly irritated by his inability to carry out basic household tasks.
In one episode, he throws bleach into the washing machine to whiten his T-shirts and turns up home five hours late, leaving Stacey to juggle seeing to the kids and working.
In another instalment, Stacey is cooking lunch when Joe’s family turn up unexpectedly after he forgot to warn her.
A trip to the zoo ends up with the actor being ticked off for telling his kids he once ate a “camel willy” on I’m A Celebrity.
On holiday, Stacey neatly unpacked all the kids’ clothes and hung them up, while Joe opened his suitcase and left it on the floor.
“Joe, use the wardrobe,” Stacey screeched as she stepped over his pants and socks.
While this domestic inequality might endear Stacey further to many of her female fans, who also feel like they do the lion’s share at home, sources say the star fears that is not the case.
“She feels like she is coming across as bossy,” says a friend.
“He can’t manage anything without her, so she is forced to be the ‘grown up’. It’s caused friction.”
Parenting forum Mumsnet is ablaze with chat about the show and while most are on Stacey’s side, some dubbed her a “Sergeant Major”.
Stacey has been a regular on lunchtime show Loose Women for years, and her new prime-time BBC programme should be a massive coup for her.
But she has gone unusually quiet on social media, with no posts promoting it on Instagram since January 1.
The programme is not the only thing conspicuous by its absence from Stacey’s Insta account.
Despite being a prolific poster — she has 6.1million followers on the channel — she hasn’t been seen on social media with best pal and social media cleaning guru Sophie Hinchliffe, known as Mrs Hinch, since 2023.
Their last appearance together was when Sophie featured on Stacey’s makeover show, Sort Your Life Out, which sees experts help families declutter their homes.
This has led fans to speculate the influencers have fallen out.
Yet, while both Mrs Hinch and Stacey have made tidy sums of money endorsing everything from cleaning sprays to beauty products, doing so on the taxpayer-funded BBC is a different kettle of fish.
Just this week, experts warned the Stacey & Joe show “faced the axe” after the couple blatantly plugged their brands during episodes.
In one scene, Stacey promotes an unnamed clothing line, saying: “I’m going to be trying on my last summer collection. I have brand partnerships and design different things.”
She teased plans for her own perfume, saying: “I would love to sort of create scents from Pickle Cottage that make me really happy.”
Another scene shows her hosting a Halloween-themed party for her Asda homeware collection, At Home With Stacey Solomon.
Meanwhile, Joe talked about his Lidl range and cooking account, and was pictured outside his family’s coffee shop.
BBC rules clearly state: “No on-air talent should promote products, goods, services or clothing they use on air.”
Corporation chiefs take breaches seriously.
In 2021, they were close to sacking DIY SOS host Nick Knowles in a row over a cereal advert he appeared in.
'INTRUSIVE PROGRAMME'
Yet the BBC defended Stacey and Joe this week, with a spokesman saying the couple’s commercial tie-ups are “made clear to the audience and only included where editorially justified”.
Stacey’s lucrative business deals have netted her a £6.1million fortune — and accounts show that she earns a staggering £57,000 a month.
That eclipses Joe’s comparatively smaller fortune of £2.1million.
The couple, who married at Pickle Cottage in July 2022, last worked together as brief co-hosts on I’m A Celeb’s spin-off show in 2016 — and Stacey recently admitted they were “panicked” when they realised how intrusive their new programme was.
But she insisted they were just a “normal” family “doing our best in every aspect of our lives”.
Trying to make peace with fans having access to their world, warts and all, she added: “In the end, you sort of relax with that, and you think, ‘Oh well, so they saw us get the hump with each other, they saw us do something wrong’.
“That is probably the best thing we could show the world because everything isn’t perfect.”
Joe said: “We don’t want to glamorise anything.
“Our biggest discussions at the beginning of this were, ‘How much are people going to watch us take the kids to school and change nappies? Our lives are not that exciting’.”
Previous TV reality spin-offs have proved disastrous for celebrity pairings, with Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes’ relationship imploding while filming for ITV2 Love Island “sister show”, Crackin’ On.
Elsewhere, the director had barely shouted cut when Chloe Madeley ended her marriage to former rugby star James Haskell.
Stacey and Joe might be facing intense scrutiny, but they are clearly working hard at their marriage.
In February, they spent a romantic Valentine’s weekend in Paris before going on to enjoy a family skiing break in Switzerland.
During their televised therapy session, Stacey said: “I understand Joe’s frustration because he is putting a lot of effort in.
“I’d say, ‘Joe, I really need help with this, this and this’.
“And Joe hears that and he wants to support me, but he’ll do other things.”
She tells her husband: “You’re a great dad and an amazing person, but sometimes I don’t think you take into consideration all the fires I’ve got to put out everywhere.”
And while viewers express sympathy for Joe’s ADHD traits, there are still those who wonder how Stacey copes.
One asked: “How does she put up with Joe Swash? He’s an absolute liability”.
Another said it was a “minor miracle Stacey Solomon hasn’t murdered him by now”.
However, with viewing figures hovering around a healthy 3.5million an episode, it seems plenty of us are keen to tune in.
Even if it’s only to find out if Joe survives the rest of the series.
