‘Angry’ I’m A Celebrity favourite Josie Gibson ‘brandished machete in furious bedroom bust-up with ex-fiance’
Plus, plumber Luke also told how he met Josie’s cocaine-dealing grandma
I’M A Celeb star Josie Gibson’s ex-fiancé says she brandished a machete during a row.
Plumber Luke Sanwo, 36, said of their bust-up: “I was shocked and amazed but didn’t feel in danger.”
He said Josie “ran hot and cold” during their five-year romance.
Daytime telly favourite Josie was “shouting and angry” as she picked up a machete during a row with her fiancé.
Josie, tipped to win I’m A Celeb after charming fans with her down-to-earth personality and quick wit, clashed with Luke Sanwo shortly before the end of their stormy five-year relationship.
Recalling the furious bust-up, Luke said: “She picked up the machete I had in the bedroom.
“It was about a foot long. She was shouting and angry.
“I was shocked and amazed but I didn’t feel in danger. I know she didn’t intend me any harm.”
Plumber Luke also told how he met Josie’s cocaine-dealing grandma, who he says had a grudge against him.
Mum-of-one Josie, 38, is being lined up as ITV’s next big star after covering for Holly Willoughby on the This Morning sofa earlier this year.
Holly quit in October with Josie a potential full-time replacement after her jungle stint ends.
Luke says their on-off relationship started in 2011 soon after Josie won the 11th series of Channel 4’s Big Brother.
He said: “We met at the SW4 house music festival on Clapham Common. She looked very attractive wearing tight jeans and leopard-print top.
“One of her friends mentioned she had been on Big Brother but I had no idea who she was. We went back to her house and partied and I ended up staying the night.
“We were inseparable after that. On the second date we went to Richmond Park and photos of us ended up in the paper.
“That’s when I realised she was famous. She explained she had won Big Brother. She was great and really bubbly and I was very in love. It felt like Josie had entered my life at just the right time.”
But Luke said the romance was tested when he met Josie’s gran Diane Gibson.
Diane had been arrested in 1998 when caught with 2.9kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of £240,000 in her car at the M4’s Membury services near Swindon.
In 2013 she was jailed for four years, three months for possession with intent to supply, plus three months for going on the run.
The judge at Bristol crown court took Diane’s ill health into consideration.
Luke said: “Josie’s nan was on crutches and needed help for medical stuff. She held a grudge against me from the start.
“She kept saying, ‘He’s just with you for the money’. Josie seemed fed up with the situation, but she would make a joke out of it.”
Luke claims that in 2013 Josie suggested they take their relationship to the next level.
He said: “I bought an engagement ring from a pawn shop on Acton high street. It cost £125 and was a little silver cluster with dark diamonds.
“There was no proposal. We just put it out that we were engaged.
“I thought, well, it’s part of her business and we have to do what we have to do.”
Luke and Josie moved into a £300,000 four-bedroom house in her home city of Bristol, near where her mum lived in a static caravan.
Luke said: “We talked about kids. She told me she wanted to have two boys and call them Ronnie and Reggie after the Krays.
“It wasn’t my first choice of baby names but she said she wanted two little troublemakers. She couldn’t have been joking because she later named her son Reggie.
“I was besotted with her and we did have great times together with loads of passion. But she ran hot and cold.
“One minute she would be tearing my head off and the next she’d be tearing my clothes off. She would also be openly flirty in front of me, which would be embarrassing.”
He claimed: “Josie kept throwing me out for petty reasons knowing I was in a different city and only had a few friends there.
“The last time she did it, I told her, ‘This isn’t happening again’. I moved into a flat up the road for six months, but we didn’t break up.
“We kept seeing each other on and off and one day she signed up to appear on a TV dating show.
“She told me, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not real’. I tried not to watch it, but I saw an advert for it where she was walking up the road holding hands with some guy.
“That was the last straw. I started seeing someone else and she got really upset about that.”
In a 2016 interview Josie claimed: “I don’t want to go back because he’s dumped me six times. I love him to bits but I’m sick of being dumped.”
According to Luke, Josie “met a guy at the gym and started sending me pictures of them lying in bed”.
It was around this time Luke says they had the machete bust-up.
Luke told The Sun on Sunday: “We had a row about something. We had the machete because we used it for chopping chicken for barbecues.”
He said: “I sent her an email after that in an attempt to clear the air.
“She accused me of running off with £700. She did lend me money when I was a bit tight, but she said, ‘Don’t worry because you are doing all these magazine shoots with me’.”
This week viewers saw Josie quit a Bushtucker Trial involving spiders.
Luke confirmed: “We had a bird in the house once and she freaked out. She hates spiders and is terrified of heights.” Luke is now engaged to the mum of his two children.
A source close to Josie said: “Josie was swept off her feet when she first met Luke back in 2011 and welcomed him into her life with open arms, but from the very beginning he betrayed her and continued to be disloyal.
“Josie found out Luke was constantly selling stories about her and so she had to make the tough decision to walk away from their relationship, which broke her heart.
“Luke was also cheating on her with multiple women, and it was obvious he was just with her to make a fast buck.”