When I was 15 – a decade ago now – Monday nights didn’t get more exciting than tuning into E4 at 9pm to watch Made In Chelsea.
I was obsessed with the posh socialites who inhabited one of London’s most chi-chi postcodes. Their lives seemed impossibly glamorous: frequenting London’s exclusive restaurants and clubs, falling out with one another and, of course, exchanging 24-carat gossip.
Forget the Hollywood A-list – for me, celebrity was all about the MIC cast: Millie Mackintosh, Binky Felstead and, of course, the show’s resident hunk, Spencer Matthews.
All in all, it was a perfect formula for reality television.
Spencer Matthews and Jamie Laing at a VIP party in Dublin in 2013
So just imagine my delight when I came face-to-face with Spencer and his childhood friend and co-star, Jamie Laing, on a trip with my parents to the King’s Road – the famous Chelsea street where so much of the MIC shenanigans took place. To say I was star-struck would be the understatement of the century.
It was a sunny weekend during the summer holidays and, as a friend and I strolled past the designer boutiques and fashionable hang-out spots that formed the backdrop to the show, we mused over the delicious possibility of bumping into one of the cast members.
We were wearing our smartest outfits for the occasion and hoped for the best but, as we headed to a pizza restaurant about halfway down the south-west London street, we accepted that a chance encounter with our heroes was distinctly unlikely.
Then I heard two voices that I recognised. Yes, it was Spencer and Jamie, then the ‘It Boy’ of the show, standing outside a bar, surrounded – unsurprisingly – by a group of at least ten adoring women.
I couldn’t believe our luck. Jumping for joy, I turned to my parents, who couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about as they’d never seen the show.
But when I explained how much I loved MIC and the role it played in my life, and that of my friends, they suggested I ask for a picture with the two stars.
Spencer and Jamie, both then in their mid-20s, came across as very self-assured men on the show, and I suddenly became shy.
They were clearly enjoying their Saturday night out and I wondered whether it was a good idea to interrupt them.
However, my parents were determined to grab the opportunity to put a smile on their daughter’s face.
Spencer Matthews with Jamie Laing at his wedding in Marbella, Spain, in 2023
Spencer Matthews reunites with Vogue Williams after completing his desert marathons last year
They approached the group and explained how my friend and I were big fans of MIC. Jamie immediately ran over to us, gave us each a hug and asked what we liked about the show.
He then proceeded to pose for numerous photos with us. And when we decided some of them hadn’t turned out very well, he let us take some more. He couldn’t have been more friendly.
But it was a very different story when my parents approached Spencer.
‘Hi, 15-year-old daughter would love a picture with you if you’ve got a minute,’ they said politely.
He responded by saying: ‘If she waits a year, she can get a lot more than a selfie.’
It’s hard to think of a more coarse and ill-judged remark to make to the parents of a 15-year-old girl. They were inwardly furious, of course, but – for the sake of fulfilling my dream – they swallowed their anger and I duly posed next to Spencer, in blissful ignorance, with a huge smile on my face.
The two men I met that night couldn’t have been more different and now, some ten years later, it comes as no surprise to me that the once-inseparable Jamie and Spencer are rarely seen together.
Looking back, Spencer’s previous questionable attitudes towards women could be observed in his on-screen interactions.
‘It’s hard to respect you when you allow me to cheat on you,’ he famously once told Louise Thompson, a fellow MIC cast member.
In another episode it emerged that Spencer had once slept with Jamie’s ex-girlfriend. ‘I cannot believe you’d do this to one of your best mates,’ Jamie said at the time. ‘Spencer, you cannot treat me like this and hurt me. No mates of mine would ever do this to me.’
Spencer has since admitted a drinking problem influenced his behaviour while he was on the show.
In an interview with the Mail’s Everything I Know About Me podcast last year, he said: ‘I have sought help for my alcoholism. I hate placing blame on circumstances outside of my control for my alcohol abuse. I’ve always been uncomfortable with that. My decision to abuse alcohol for many years was my decision and I was conscious at the time of doing it.’ He quit drinking in 2018 to save his marriage and now owns CleanCo, a non-alcoholic spirits company.
He has also admitted to behaving like ‘an idiot’ in the past but says he has grown more mature over the years.
The pair’s award-winning and lucrative podcast, 6 Degrees From Jamie And Spencer, which was broadcast on BBC Sounds, suddenly ended last November after four years, amid claims that Spencer’s wife Vogue Williams had insisted Spencer pull the plug on the show.
Spencer Matthews with his wife, model turned presenter Vogue Williams, at the Baftas in 2023
Jamie Laing in Leicester during his Comic Relief challenge this month
Tensions appeared to have been brewing between the pair since 2023, when Spencer admitted he was ‘p****d off’ when Jamie failed to invite him to his London register office wedding to Sophie Habboo in April of that year. (Spencer was invited to a bigger celebration of their marriage two months later at the Marbella Club in Spain.)
More recently, fans were left scratching their heads when there was no sign of Spencer as Jamie completed his challenge of running a brutal 150 miles over five days for Comic Relief.
Sources have told me that Vogue asked her husband to take a step back from his pal after rumours swirled on WhatsApp that Lottie Moss – Kate’s younger sister – and Spencer had got together at Jamie’s Spanish wedding party, an event that Vogue didn’t attend because she was looking after their three young children. : Lottie has fiercely denied the rumours, explaining that they just ‘partied together’.
His relationship with Vogue, the Irish model turned radio and TV presenter who was married to Westlife singer Brian McFadden from 2012 to 2017, came under renewed scrutiny earlier this month when Vogue revealed on the Netmums podcast that the division of domestic labour in their home could lead to arguments.
If my own brief encounter with Spencer is anything to go by, it’s no surprise to me that he has lost good friends over the years.