Category Entertainment News

Bobby Brazier has given insight into family feelings about the fact his younger brother Freddy, 20, is to become a first time father following reports of family tensions

Bobby Brazier has shared his feelings about becoming an uncle as his younger brother, Freddy, prepares to become a father. The 22-year-old actor has revealed he is “excited” by the news that his sibling is to become a dad.

Bobby, who played Freddie Slater in EastEnders since 2022, is the eldest son of TV star Jeff Brazier, 46, and late reality star Jade Goodie – who died in 2009 at the age of 27 following a battle against cancer. It was revealed this month that younger brother Freddy, 20, is expecting a child with an ex-girlfriend.

And it is clear that all the Braziers cannot wait to welcome a new addition to their family. Soon-to-be granddad Jeff has already spoken out about the way he hopes to support his youngest son.

READ MORE: Freddy Brazier makes very unusual baby announcement as he confirms he’s going to be a dadREAD MORE: Jade Goody’s widower Jack Tweed fears he’ll never remarry 16 years after her death

And now Bobby has also shared his thoughts on the upcoming arrival. Opening up to The Sun, Bobby said: “My dad broke the news to me about Freddy.

“I didn’t know what to believe to begin with. I’m looking forward to becoming an uncle – a funcle. We are excited.”

Bobby went on to explain that the baby will bring the family together closer than ever before. He gushed: “It’s going to be a team effort. Undoubtedly it will bring us together.

“My dad is uber supportive and I’m hoping I can take some of that and raise the baby together.” The statement follows positive reports of Freddy reconnecting with his dad, Jeff.

In a recent social media post, Freddy praised his dad’s stage debut after watching him in a production of 101 Dalmatians, writing: “I’ve now been to watch 101 Dalmatians three times. Some would say Fred you got a lot of time on your hands don’t ya? Well yes I do got too much time on my hands actually!

But I just love watching my Dad at work and having fun and smiling, it makes me smile. I’ve Loved watching my Dad and the rest of the cast in the show as has everyone that I’ve gone with or spoke to. What a great show if you haven’t watched it you’ve got till the 30th so hurry up!!”

Jeff responded to his son’s tribute with an emotional comment that hinted at hopes of a more personal reconciliation at home. He wrote: “This is beautiful Fred thank you for taking the time. I love you forever and I’m there for you through thick and thin. Hopefully see you at home tonight x”

There had been reports of friction between the father and son after it was reported Jade’s mother, Jackiey Budden, 68, had come between them. And there have also been reports that Bobby is moving to India to to “immerse himself” in the Hare Krishna movement and pursue a spiritual journey.

The reports have hinted at tensions within the Brazier family – but online posts by the three men suggest they family is united and as strong as ever.

Pete Briquette has opened up about his time with The Boomtown Rats and how, after 50 years in the business, the band are still extremely busy with sold-out tours

They’re celebrating their 50th anniversary, but The Boomtown Rats’ Pete Briquette admits he had a very different outlook on the band’s future. Briquette, Bob Geldof, and Simon Crowe will next month embark on an almost sold-out tour and launch a special documentary commemorating their 50th anniversary.

Speaking to the Mirror, Pete, 71, said: “If I come back 50 years, I thought 50 years ago what I’d be like in 50 years’ time – I had this vision of being in a special old people’s home for musicians, we’d all be a distant memory.

“We’ve had our busiest year ever with the Rats’ 50th birthday and then of course, Live Aid’s 40th birthday and Band Aid’s 40th, it’s been fantastic.”

Pete, from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, in Ireland, says it was an “honour” to have played a part in both Live Aid and Band Aid. “There are two things young people are impressed with in my career, if I’m talking to young people, one is that, and the other is the fact that we did a tour with the Ramones and Talking Heads – anything beyond that, they’re not interested, they don’t care about hit records, or anything else.

“It’s great for being involved in that. That final moment at Wembley, the Rats played Feed The World at the very end, that’s where the lead singer of The Rats was, alternatively, Freddie [Mercury], Elton [John], Bono, [David] Bowie, George Michael, Sting, and our normal geezer at the front, Geldof.

“That is just a great moment to always remember, playing that song, that iconic moment, Bono sings that line, Wembley sings that line with him. It’s great to be part of it. I mean, it’s good to be part of such a great rock and roll band. My life has been lived in a rock and roll world, playing with this band. I’m not going to pretend it’s amazing, and I feel extraordinarily lucky.

“To be playing a sold-out tour and all these festivals over the summer, it’s been an incredibly busy and fantastic year.” Pete says the “unique moment” will always be etched in his mind due to the chords being sung line for line at Wembley Stadium, adding he is “extraordinarily honoured” to have played a part in the iconic performance and song.

But after five decades, he says it’s “really nice to be relevant,” ahead of their upcoming tour. He added: “Most people our age become invisible, you become aware of that once you get into your 50s, 50s and 60s, you become invisible to later generations, they don’t see you in the room, they don’t see you in the street. This avoids that for people like me, I’m a very lucky man.”

While most artists would celebrate their fifth decade in music with their bandmates at a quiet party, The Rats will instead be celebrating at a concert at London’s Eventim Apollo on October 31. “It’s going to be a great gig,” he said, before explaining that there’s going to be a special half-hour film beforehand documenting their rise to fame and cementing themselves as one of the world’s greatest rock bands.

But the film is still being made; however, it will feature unseen footage of the band from the past five decades, as well as “funny stuff from the past.” However, Pete explained that The Rats use “certain criteria” to choose their setlist. This includes how the song sounds live, whether it’s a hit, and what fans want. “We’re forever leaving out songs,” he laughed, adding: “It’s not good, but it has to be done—it’s painful.” But one band he has respect for is Oasis, who on their mammoth Oasis Live’25 tour, have performed B-side tracks and had the whole sold-out crowd singing along to every word.

The Rats have inspired a whole generation, but Pete admits to being inspired by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones growing up. “I’ve always had a musical reference,” he said. Nowadays, he still listens to BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 – but his music choice is very different. “I love Fontaines DC and Kneecap. They’re Irish bands by coincidence, but I mean, Arctic Monkeys are a fantastic band, but before that, it was Radiohead that I loved. There’s always been a band that I love at the time.

“Fontaines are my favourite at the moment. Music is very important to me, it’s part of my core, part of my DNA, part of what makes me happy or sad, or if I’m sad, it’s music that I reach out to.” However, he admits that while there’s a resurgence in bands, there’s also a “lack.”

He added: “There are very few bands now, which is sad, a band is unique. What comes out of that band is a unique thing that’s only unique to that band; there’s a certain connection that people have. I think any one of the Stones playing with someone else becomes nothing but the minute they get together, they are The Rolling Stones.

“Me comparing us [The Rats] to the stones is a bit weird, individually, we’re like nothing, but as a band, we’re a complete powerhouse.” Reflecting on Kneecap, Pete said: “It’s not the politics I like about Kneecap; they’re a bit silly to be saying things. You can say those things without saying them where you get in trouble.”

The single Love Island star has come up with a cunning plan to find out who’s betrayed her

Ekin-Su Culculoglu says she has taken inspiration from Coleen Rooney’s Wagatha Christie tactics to expose disloyal lovers. The Love Island star has gone to great lengths to flush out those doing the dirty on her, smoking out traitors with fake news.

It’s the cunning method made famous by Coleen, who turned detective to root out the source of stories appearing in the press about her and her family by planting stories. In a now iconic social media post, she accused rival WAG Rebekah Vardy of being behind the leaks. The subsequent libel dispute was dubbed Wagatha Christie, in a nod to Coleen’s online sting and playing on the name of sleuth writer Agatha Christie. Rebekah agreed to pay Coleen’s legal costs of almost £1.2million in May.

Explaining why she has adopted the approach when it comes to dating, Ekin-Su said: “I don’t trust everyone. I test them first. I deliver fake stories and if it leaks, I know they’re after clout. I do that with friends too because you just never know. Coleen Rooney was smart doing that.”

Speaking at the National Television Awards on Wednesday, single Ekin lifted the lid on her love life after her split from dancer Curtis Pritchard in May. The pair got together earlier this year on Love Island: All Stars.

With a mischievous smile, she said: “I’m in a relationship with myself – it’s great. Me and myself, we take ourselves on walks, we kiss all the time… Jokes aside, I’ve had a few dates. It’s been fun. Raya [the celeb dating app] is amazing.”

She previously dated fellow Love Island star Davide Sanclimenti after the pair met on the 2022 series but the pair split months after leaving the villa amid accusations of cheating.

It was announced today that Ekin-Su will appear in a new Netflix reality series. The 31-year-old has been announced as one of the housemates for Inside: USA which will be coming to the streaming giant on September 21. The show, which is created by the UK YouTube group Sidemen has already had two successful seasons in the UK.

She will be living alongside a number of US celebrities and content creators, including Selling Sunset’s Breana “Bre” Tiesi.

Ekin, who has also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and the US version of The Traitors, teased another new project this week. She said: “I’ve been busy working my ass off. I just came back from Venice, now I’m flying to America.

“I’m burnt out, but life is about working hard. You’ve got to grab it with both hands. Something’s coming up in a few months. It’s not a reality show, it’s a different project.”

World champion dancer Katya Jones has been a professional on Strictly Come Dancing for 10 years, but exclusively reveals why she never felt ‘worthy’ of her success until she joined the BBC show

Katya Jones is now one of the Strictly Come Dancing’s longest-serving professional dancers, currently celebrating her 10th year on the hit BBC dance show. Before joining the series, Russian-born Katya, now 36, was already an nine-time British National and three-time World champion in Latin Champion.

But in a heartbreaking admission, she has revealed that despite her professional glory, it wasn’t until she took to the Strictly dancefloor for the first time with her celebrity partner Ed Balls that she “finally thought, ‘I’m good at this'”.

Speaking to OK! for an exclusive photoshoot to mark the return of the show, Katya explained that her years in the competitive world prior to joining the series were so rigorous and demanding that it left her with little time or energy to enjoy or celebrate her wins.

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“Before, as a multi-World and British champion, the feeling was, ‘You’re never good enough,’” Katya said. “Standing on the podium, I often didn’t feel I deserved to win. I’d be thinking, ‘But I didn’t do this bit right,’ or, ‘What will my coach say?’.”

She continued, “My first year with Ed was unexpectedly wonderful for me, and I think it was an unexpected highlight for everyone else. Because of that, it was the first time in my life I thought, ‘I’m good at this.’

“Being able to encourage someone to train after an awful day is a win for me. Working out a routine that lets my celeb partner shine is a win. There are lots of less obvious wins than the Glitterball win, even though that’s pretty incredible, too.”

Katya and ex-politician Ed placed sixth in her debut series, but their moves on the dancefloor became the stuff of Strictly legend – with their famous Gangnam Style routine earning them a nomination in the Must-See TV Moment category at the BAFTAs.

In 2020, Katya made Strictly history as part of the show’s first ever same sex partnership, with professional boxer Nicola Adams. The pair were tipped to do well, but had to withdraw in the fourth week after testing positive for Covid.

As Katya, who was married to fellow dancer Neil Jones until 2019, opened up about some of her less enjoyable moments from her time on the show – including the attention that followed the Seann Walsh kiss-gate scandal – she also explained how she copes with the spotlight of being on one of the biggest show’s on British television.

“The press interest in the show is huge, so I just focus on the work. People can like or dislike me, they can criticise me, but not my work if I do it well,” she said.

“It’s like I have two parallel lives – my public life and what really happens in my life. They co-exist but they’re not the same. My real life is when I go for a walk with the dogs or play piano.

“Whatever noise is out there about my parallel life, I won’t let it spoil real life. This is the message I would love everyone to hear from me – the outside noise doesn’t define your true life.”

Former Love Island star Olivia Attwood has endured an incredibly busy week at work after a tumultuous month where she confessed that her marriage to Bradley Dack is a ‘work in progress’

Reality TV star Olivia Attwood has made light of her incredibly busy work schedule after a hectic couple of weeks.

The former Love Island star, 34, has been non-stop over the past week as she launched the brand-new season of her hit ITV2 reality show, Bad Boyfriends, attended and presented an award at The National Television Awards, and launched her own collection of clothing with high-street giant River Island.

Throughout the chaos of her incredibly busy work schedule this week, Olivia has also faced more scrutiny about her marriage with Bradley Dack, 31, after he failed to accompany her to the National Television Awards on Wednesday night ,after Olivia confessed that they have both ‘messed up’ and admitted that their relationship has faced ‘challenges’ over the past six months.

Olivia and Bradley did, however, put on a strong united front when the football ace showed up to support her on Thursday night at the launch of her new edit with River Island.

READ MORE: Maura Higgins shuts down rumours she was turned away from NTAs afterpartyREAD MORE: Olivia Attwood backed by husband Bradley Dack at major career event amid marriage fears

Taking to her Instagram stories on Friday, Olivia poked fun at how crazy her life has been of late as she shared a number of light-hearted work-related posts. In one image, Olivia proved that she was working hard late into the evening as she shared a glimpse of one of her new projects.

Alongside a glimpse of a photoshoot, Olivia wrote: “What even is a day off?”. She then shared another look at the photoshoot as she posted the time on her snap. The former Love Island star proved that she was working late into the evening on Friday as she continues to keep on top of her hectic schedule.

However, it seems like it all took a toll on Olivia, who then posted a video of herself passed out asleep while on set. The blonde beauty could be seen snoozing while wearing a full face of glamorous makeup. “As you can tell, it’s been a very long week,” she wrote alongside the video.

It comes after Olivia was forced to defend her marriage after her recent trip to Ibiza with friend Pete Wicks. The former TOWIE star, 36, sparked controversy when he was seen cuddling up to Olivia on a yacht as they soaked up the sun on their Ibiza getaway.

During a recent appearance on ITV’s Lorraine, Olivia set the record straight on her and Bradley’s marriage. She also addressed the infidelity in their early relationship after she found out that Brad had been unfaithful in the early days of their relationship, before the pair rekindled.

“Look, Brad and I had a rocky start. There’s no such thing as perfect, our relationships has ups and downs for sure it’s a collaborative thing, it’s a work in progress,” Olivia said.

“It’s not something I would recommend to everyone to forgive [cheating] and move on. It worked for us, I’d never gone back to an ex before, I never thought I would, but Brad was the exception! In some cases, it can work. The maturity. We were like 20, 21, when me went. He was silly in the beginning, I was silly. You grow up together and learn how to behave.”

When Lorraine mentioned that due to Olivia’s fame, she can be very easily ‘photographed with someone’ and have it go viral, the presenter seemed to take it all in her stride. She said: “I don’t spend time looking at news outlets, or gossip columns. They have a job to do, I’ve got a job to do. It’s part of the job. You’d drive yourself crazy! Look at something else.”

Olivia also admitted that she understands why her husband Bradley was “upset” over her Ibiza photos with Pete. Last week, she made it clear that she and Bradley are very much together, and her connection with Pete is purely friendly and professional.

Reflecting on the controversy, Olivia said both she and Bradley are determined to work through what she calls “difficult times” caused by their busy schedules.

“Me and Brad never pretend to have a perfect relationship, we have been up, down, left, backwards, and the last six months have been really challenging for us,” she told Mail Online.

“My work and his work take precedence over everything, we have to navigate our relationship all the time. It’s the boring side of being an adult in a long-term relationship, we constantly have to work at it and that’s just the truth.”

Strictly Come Dancing’s Stacey Dooley shared an update on life with her partner Kevin Clifton, and their two-year-old daughter Minnie, amid a new project together

Stacey Dooley has opened up about the changes she has experienced since becoming a mum. The presenter and former Strictly Come Dancing professional Kevin Clifton welcomed their first child, a daughter named Minnie, back in January 2023.

In recent months, the 38-year-old has been open about co-sleeping with her toddler, and how it has impacted her relationship dynamics.

During a recent appearance on Luke Hamnett’s Live, Laugh, Luke podcast, Stacey and Luke briefly discussed their personal relationships after talking about Stacey’s Sleep Over episode with Lily Phillips.

Lily, an OnlyFans star, made headlines after fronting a documentary about her sleeping with 100 men in a single day.

Sharing his thoughts, TikTok sensation Luke humorously commented: “I couldn’t even s**g for two minutes.”

Stacey agreed, adding: “Especially when you’ve got two-year-olds, and they’re still in the bed. It’s tiresome. Sometimes, I mean, you feel obligated.”

Later in the conversation, the BBC star spoke further about her experiences of motherhood.

She admitted: “It’s no joke, it’s rough out there and she’s two. And she’s no one’s fool, she’s so bossy and sort of won’t really entertain me at the moment.”

Stacey went on to reveal that Minnie currently favours Kevin, and joked she was “terrified” of her daughter at times.

She recalled of a recent situation: “I walked through the door the other day before her, and it was like I had said to her, ‘We’re never going to the park again, I’m taking all your toys, and you’re never having a roast dinner’.

“It was just fireworks and I just thought… and you don’t think you’d ponder to that, you’ve got to sort of be robust with them and tell them what’s what, [but] I’m terrified.”

Along with parenting duties, the duo are also balancing their current West End collaboration in 2:22 A Ghost Story, portraying fictional married couple Sam and Jenny.

The pair are no strangers to working together, having first crossed paths during the 2018 series of Strictly Come Dancing, which they ultimately won.

Discussing working together over the years, Stacey explained: “We worked together then in 2018, but obviously, you know the dynamics were so different because I was sort of led by him.

“It was very much his world, and now seven years on, I’ve done the play before so I’ve got a bit more leverage.”

Speaking about their contrasting methods, she added: “Kev really throws himself into it and he’s very immersed and he takes it very seriously.

“I take it seriously, but we’re just pretending. And so, I sometimes feel [that] even if I want to take the p**s slightly, I don’t want to make him feel self-conscious or whatever.”