Inside secret romance and heartbreak on Channel 4’s The Bridge
THE winner of Channel 4 contest The Bridge, Kim Blackman, split her £175,000 prize with competitor Shaun Pelayo after they began a romance on the show.
But I can reveal that when the cameras stopped rolling, he promptly dumped her, leaving her heartbroken.
Speaking after the final, which airs tonight at 10pm, Kim insisted she still has no regrets about sharing her cash with Shaun.
She said: “Don’t get me wrong, there are times I think that the money could have helped support my friends and family. What was I thinking, sharing the money with a boy I’d only known 12 days?
“But within that environment, we worked so hard that I couldn’t possibly keep it to myself. If I could have shared it between all of us, I probably would have. Sadly we’re not together any more. We filmed the show in January and split in April.
“I did get my heart broken but I don’t regret sharing the money with him. Morally I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with myself if I’d kept it all.”
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The show, hosted by AJ Odudu, and , saw two teams stranded on an island in Vietnam, where they were challenged to build a bridge from their beach to a pontoon in the sea. The faster team bags the prize.
But Kim, an account manager from London, got more than she bargained for after she fell head over heels for team-mate Shaun, a model from Birmingham.
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She said: “You don’t expect to go in and have this kind of relationship, but it’s like Love Island — you go in there and spend 24 hours a day with each other.
“You end up getting to know each other really well because there’s no distractions of the outside world, social media and that, so you build a strong bond. I wasn’t expecting a romance with Shaun but it was nice.”
Having had her heart broken and given up £87,500 to her now ex, Kim has a word of warning for the Love Islanders who will have to decide whether to split their winnings this summer.
She said: “My advice is to just go with your heart, have a serious think about it and then go for it. If it turns out not to be the right thing to do afterwards then it’s a lesson you’ll learn and grow from.” Yes, and a very expensive lesson as well.
GOLDEN HOUR
TV has commissioned a one-off, hour-long documentary with Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds, on the relationship between disability and adoption.
It’s made by Flicker Productions, the firm behind acclaimed ITV docus Kate Garraway: Finding Derek and Caring For Derek.
MATT: BAD CHOICE, BECKHAM
DANCING On Ice pro Matt Evers is less than impressed with fellow sportsman David Beckham.
Speaking on Telly Talks, which airs tonight on Virgin Radio Pride at 6pm, the gay skating champ was considering Goldenballs’ decision to take £10million from Qatar – a deeply homophobic country – to promote the World Cup there.
He said: “There are so many double standards right now. He’s got to pay the mortgage, however I don’t think he needs to pay the mortgage with that extra money from Qatar.
"He’s not a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but I’d like to think that he is a strong ally.”
But Matt also tried to give Becks the benefit of the doubt, adding: “With Beckham there’s probably 50 to 75 people in his management team. And sometimes you don’t always get to have a say in some of those deals and promotions.”
CHASE IS OFF THE BOX FOR CRAIG
IT takes a lot to make Craig Revel Horwood look shocked given the amount of Botox he’s had over the years.
Perhaps he’s just seen himself on another gameshow – because despite appearing on a string of them, he claims he can’t stand them.
The Strictly star, who’s been on everything from Celebrity Juice to Through The Keyhole, said: “The ones that turn me off are mainly gameshows, I can’t watch them.”
Craig takes part with fiance Jonathan Myring in Friday’s special Pride edition of Celebrity Gogglebox on Channel 4, which also includes some of Britain’s best loved LGBTQ+ personalities, including The Chase’s Paul Sinha.
Probably best Paul doesn’t find out about Craig’s telly bête noire.
ONE MP I’D PAY TO SEE
WACKY-haired MP Michael Fabricant says he was offered a “huge amount of money” to appear on I’m A Celebrity a few years ago.
He tweeted this week: “I couldn’t do it as it is shot when @UKParliament is in session. I kept saying ‘No’ and they kept upping the offer!”
He added: “They chose the actor Larry Lamb for that particular season instead of me.
“They asked if I was scared of insects and when I said ‘not particularly’ they said, ‘Well show us how you would react with a pile of creepy crawlies poured over you’.
“I did my campest scream and waved my arms around and they offered me even more money.”
I’d have paid out of my own pocket to see him in the jungle.
HASTINGS BY THE SEA
JESUS, Mary and Joseph and the wee baby donkey – Line Of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar can’t even go on holiday without being mobbed by fans.
So he’s come up with a way of avoiding British fans through a scheme more cunning than something a bent copper would come up with.
Talking on the Out To Lunch podcast, Adrian, best know for playing Supt Ted Hastings on LoD, said: “I‘ve just been to Majorca and I’ve purposely booked myself into a place where there’s only Germans.”
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But he doesn’t want to distance himself too much from his alter ego, and sounds up for a seventh season of LoD . . . if writer Jed Mercurio thinks there’s a story.
He teased: “I think there will be something else”.