Stacey Solomon is coming to the rescue again, throwing her arms around strangers and helping them sort out their lives.
‘I want to cry with them,’ says this former X Factor finalist and queen of the jungle who has forged a new career as a friend to those in need.
‘They’ve spent their life savings. The people who were doing the work for them have just upped and left.’
We’ve seen her save people from chaos on the hugely popular show Sort Your Life Out, shipping their possessions off to be laid out on the floor of a warehouse, where Stacey helps them decide what to keep and what to throw out – with all the tears and emotion that entails.
But now she’s been headhunted by a Hollywood legend – on whom more in a moment – to pick up a drill and front a new series called Renovation Rescue, coming to the aid of those abandoned by builders, with their unfinished homes in ruins.
‘They’ve been done over by somebody they really trusted,’ says this warm and funny but very practical 34-year-old.
Stacey Solomon is starring in a new series called Renovation Rescue, coming to the aid of those abandoned by builders, with their unfinished homes in ruins
Stacey smiles for a selfie with her husband, actor Joe Swash, and her five children
‘It’s a big shock to their system and a trauma that makes them feel like this can happen everywhere in their life. I tell them, ‘I totally understand why you’re so nervous about doing this again, you’ve been through such a horrible time.’
‘I watch the tension come out of their shoulders: finally someone is listening to them, they’re being understood and validated. They don’t feel like idiots any more.’
Stacey is perfect for the role, but then she has been recruited by none other than Reese Witherspoon, the Oscar-winning actor whose female-driven production company was behind Big Little Lies and The Morning Show and is now launching its first project in Britain, of which Reese will be an executive producer.
‘Oh my God, what an amazing feeling to be asked,’ says Stacey with glee. ‘I was genuinely like, ‘How does she even know me?’ I still to this day don’t know how they found me. They just said they wanted me. Maybe some of her researchers and her team had seen the show. Well, they would have had to, I guess, to know anything about me.’
Do they hang out now then, the girl from Dagenham and the star of Legally Blonde?
‘Ha! No, I haven’t actually met her. She wrote a message to say how excited she is and we’re hoping to FaceTime her on the day the show goes out. She seems pretty busy changing the world for women in our industry, so that’s OK, I’ll let her off for not coming to Bradford to see us shooting an episode!’
Reese Witherspoon probably didn’t see the young Stacey come third on The X Factor in 2009 or win I’m A Celebrity the following year, but she could be one of the 5.9 million people who follow her on Instagram or bought her bestselling book Tap To Tidy.
And Reese’s talent scouts will have been as wowed as the rest of us by Sort Your Life Out.
In Renovation Rescue she’ll help couples sort out the mess they’re in and learn the skills – such as painting, decorating, basic plumbing and building work – needed to do it themselves and claw back costs.
‘Don’t get me wrong, there are always going to be jobs where the professionals are needed. I can’t build a house myself,’ says Stacey, who was taught DIY skills by her father as a young girl.
‘There are so many amazing tradesmen out there, but they’re hard to find and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can end up spending loads of money and never getting anything back, which is just devastating.’
Stacey still lives in Essex, but now has a £1.2 million house in the countryside called Pickle Cottage, where she lives with her husband, actor and presenter Joe Swash, and her five children, Zach and Leighton from previous relationships, and Rex, Rose and Belle, whose ages range from 15 to one.
Has she had her own scrapes with bad builders? ‘Yeah, years ago in a previous home my husband and I wanted to turn our shed into a mini office. We paid half the money up front, they came in and built three-quarters of a brick wall.
‘We never saw them again. There’s nothing you can do. You think, ‘God, how could I be so stupid?’ I’m not stupid. I’m a bright girl. It’s not about losing the money, it’s the psychological impact because you lose trust, self-worth.’
Stacey has revealed that she was a victim of a cowboy builder scam which made her ‘lose trust and self-worth’
So many of us go through similar troubles that Stacey believes schools should be teaching the skills to avoid them.
‘I don’t feel like our education system sets our children up properly, to go out into the world on a practical level. Just having a basic education in DIY would mean a lot less people would be done over.’
On a more personal level, Stacey has hinted that her passion for sorting, cleaning and tidying has grown out of ways she copes with anxiety.
I ask how that came into her life and she answers by talking about the birth of her son Zach when she was just 18 and should have been doing her A-levels at her modern orthodox Jewish school in Barkingside.
‘I was a kid, I didn’t feel my own mortality, like I could jump off a cliff and I’d be fine. Then I had Zach and giving birth was so traumatic I instantly realised I was human and went to thinking, ‘I could die at any point. I am mortal.’ And that just made me so anxious.’
She still struggles with that fear of death, but how does it connect to being tidy? ‘Ultimately, there are things that are totally out of your control. The way I manage those is by controlling the things I can control: so if I want to make sure my knickers are folded a certain way and that makes me feel good then fine.
‘I can’t control whether I’m going to live to 100 so I would rather set my mind on the smaller things.’
Has the anxiety lessened at all now she has a loving husband, a beautiful home, five healthy children and a blossoming career?
‘No. The more you grow, the more you care about it. I don’t think the pressure eases up at all, in fact it builds.’ Will it ever stop? ‘I don’t know, not until you’re an old lady and the kids are visiting you in your care home going, ‘Thanks for everything, Mum.’ Then you’re like, ‘Great, I’ve done it.’
Stacey Solomon is pictured with a huge smile on her face when was crowned queen of the jungle back in 2010
Stacey has a different way of coping these days.
‘I used to want to control my anxiety, but now I think, ‘All right, how do I embrace this as a part of me?’ Anxiety can be useful. If you’re anxious about dying you might be more vigilant about your health, you might check your boobs and do all the things you should. You can ask other questions too. ‘How can this inspire me to take back control? Can I use my fear of hiring a builder to learn the skills myself?’
That’s incredibly positive, so how has she got there?
‘I’ve tried different therapies. Cognitive behavioural therapy was really useful, in terms of giving me tools to stop anxiety turning to obsession, but for me it’s about not being afraid to lean into this. What am I scared of? What’s the likelihood of it happening? Then to ask, ‘What can I get out of this?’
The anxiety does still take her by surprise. ‘I could be playing with the children and thinking, ‘What if I couldn’t ever play with them again?’ Forcing myself to be present in the moment is a massive help, saying, ‘I want to be here. I’m alive. They’re playing with me right now. Enjoy it.’
Her honesty is disarming, but then part of the reason for her rise is she still seems down to earth, despite the fame. ‘I should hope so! I’m not an alien!’ She’s self-deprecating too.
‘I’m wearing a T-shirt leotard which actually is really uncomfortable. All the girls on TikTok are wearing them and they look really good because they tuck into your trousers properly but they go right up your bum!’ She bursts into raucous laughter.
Isn’t it a bit hard to wage war on clutter when you’ve got young ones tearing about the place?
‘I constantly clear up, but not to a point where it dictates our lives. Some days the house will look like what everyone else’s house looks like after five kids have been running through it. But then sometimes if I’ve been away I’ll ring my friends and family and ask, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? Can you come and help me?’ I’ll get all hands on deck.’
Family is the centre of Stacey Solomon’s life, and she says Renovation Rescue has reinforced that. Pictured: The couple in December 2022
Her mother and father live close by, as do her sister Jemma, Joe’s mother and his sisters. ‘I am really lucky that the childcare comes from within our families, which I love. I don’t know if I’d be as guilt-free going to work if that wasn’t the case.’
Is she thinking of having any more children? ‘I would love another one! But I’m really tired. I had three babies really close together. I’ve got a four-year-old, a two-year-old and a one-year-old and it’s wonderful but it is exhausting.’
She smiles to herself. ‘But I do love it. My favourite thing in the world is being a mum. Some people are like, ‘What’s your biggest dream for your career in five years’ time?’ And I want to be a stay-at-home mum. I want to do bits to the house, grow some vegetables, do all the school runs. I love it.’
She and Joe arrange their diaries so one is always home while the other works. ‘I cannot do full-time childcare, a full-time job and be a full-time housekeeper at the same time, there are not enough hours in the day, so we have to split the chores.’
She’s a realist. ‘I have no shame in saying sometimes my house is absolutely immaculate, because I have just gone through it. And sometimes it’s a state. You wouldn’t believe I sort people’s houses out for a living! But that’s an important part of life, for people to see and to know. Even if it’s a mess, I think it’s perfect.’
Family is the centre of Stacey Solomon’s life, and she says Renovation Rescue has reinforced that.
‘I have learned what really makes a home a home by making this show. The people I meet are in horrendous situations and the thing that’s holding them together isn’t what’s on the walls, how pretty or tidy things look, it’s who they are as a unit.
‘We definitely help them out the other side, but ultimately they are still surviving and still there for each other. That’s what really matters in the end.’
- Stacey Solomon’s Renovation Rescue will be shown on Channel 4 in early April.
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