They’ve become the BBC’s new golden couple after welcoming viewers into their bustling family life at their modestly named mansion, Pickle Cottage.
But the shine may be wearing off Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash – after just four episodes of their reality show, Stacey & Joe.
For the couple, who met on ITV competition I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2010, have risked the wrath of Corporation bosses after flouting editorial rules to plug a number of commercial deals on air.
Ms Solomon, 35, who rose to fame after coming third on ITV talent show The X Factor in 2009, has been filmed name-checking her homeware range and a haircare brand she’s invested in. Meanwhile her husband, the 43-year-old former EastEnders actor, has touted his own cooking account and family coffee company on the BBC One show.
Corporation rules clearly state that ‘no on-air talent should promote products, goods, services or clothing they use on air’. This includes anything they have ‘agreed, or been contracted, to promote or in which they have financial interest’.
It raises the question: are they using their own programme as a launch pad to build their brand empire?
Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash with their children outside their home, Pickle Cottage
The couple’s TV show Stacey & Joe flouts BBC editorial rules to plug a number of commercial deals on air
The couple have become one of the most marketable TV pairings since they began dating in 2016.
Swash has since appeared on reality shows including Dancing On Ice and Celebrity Masterchef, while Ms Solomon became a household name after hosting ITV panel show Loose Women and her own BBC ‘decluttering’ show, Sort Your Life Out.
They bought the Tudor-style Pickle Cottage in Essex for £1.3million in 2021 – where they married a year later.
The couple have three children together – Rex, five, Rose, three, and Belle, two – as well as their seven ‘furry children’: two dogs, Peanut and Teddy, and five ducks.
Ms Solomon also has two children from two previous relationships, Zachary, 17, and Leighton, 13, while Swash has a 17-year-old son Harry with his ex-fiancee Emma Sophocleous.
Indeed, their modern family and idyllic life in the country have led to a slew of lucrative brand deals – as they appear to showcase on their new series.
Stacey & Joe, which has drawn in more than three million viewers per episode, is billed as boasting ‘loads of love and laughs’ and ‘the beautiful chaos of life at Pickle Cottage’.
But, less than 20 minutes into the first episode, Ms Solomon showed a very different side to her home life.
Creating Instagram content for an unnamed clothing line, she tells the cameras: ‘I’m going to be trying on my last summer collection. I have brand partnerships and design different things for those brands. Anything from homeware to clothing lines.’
She also teases plans for her own perfume brand, telling viewers: ‘I’ve wanted to do this for so long now. Creating a perfume. I would love to sort of create scents from Pickle Cottage that really make me happy.’
In the following episode, Swash – who has his own Lidl range with cook Suzanne Mulholland – is filmed shooting recipe content for his Instagram.
‘We have the social media team come round once a month and we’ll just do all of the cooking content and then we’ll drip feed it on my Instagram through the month,’ he explains.
Ms Solomon and Swash met on I’m A Celebrity in 2010 but started dating in 2016
They bought the Tudor-style Pickle Cottage in Essex for £1.3million in 2021 – and married there a year later
In episode three, Ms Solomon is filmed hosting a launch party for her ASDA homeware collection, At Home With Stacey Solomon.
Decorating her home with pumpkins, skeletons and ghosts for a Halloween-themed event, she says proudly: ‘This will be my third year. We do two ranges a year. One’s Spring/Summer and one’s Autumn/Winter.’
She added that she hoped invited influencers would share posts about her products, saying: ‘When teams like ASDA want you to invite influencers, it’s always to try and spread the campaign and get the message out there.’
She went on to give a speech at the event, saying: ‘Everything that I create comes from here [home]… so it just felt right to do it here… I hope you love the collection.’
Minutes later, Swash is seen sitting outside Swash and Jones Coffee Co – the north London coffee stall his sister set up in 2021 — with no mention of his family’s financial involvement.
An episode later, Ms Solomon is filmed discussing Rehab, the haircare brand she co-owns after ‘falling in love’ with its founders and products last year.
She tells the show: ‘I honestly had no idea what I was doing when I invested in Rehab. I just knew I wanted to be a part of that company because I loved the girls and I loved the products.’
Even Harrods is name-checked, with Ms Solomon celebrating that her haircare line will soon be stocked at the department store.
But that’s not to say their shared love for commercial ventures has always united the couple – as Ms Solomon suggests on the show.
Discussing how central social media is to their work, she says: ‘I’m not one for a full crew when I’m filming my Instagram. I find it really difficult when everyone’s here.
‘Joe really wants to be good on Instagram and he doesn’t feel confident doing it. He hasn’t got his head around the whole creating content. We are a different generation, me and Joe.
‘That sounds horrible, he’s only like eight years older than me but I’ve always loved making content and being silly and just having a laugh. And Instagram is a place I could do that.’
What next then for the couple, once their six-episode series finishes next month?
While the couple’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment, a BBC spokesman said: ‘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.’
But the answer, perhaps, lies in one of Ms Solomon’s comments to the camera during the latest episode: ‘I would really love to one day have my own brand and earn from that rather than earning from my face.’
Given her TV work at Pickle Cottage, that may not be beyond the couple’s reach.
