Gethin Jones says he would love to get married and have kids, but only with the right woman
THIS week TV Magazine gets to know Gethin Jones...
I’m currently single, but my relationship history has taught me that it’s not good to settle. I hope one day I am blessed to be married and have children, but you can’t force the issue. I’m 38 now and the older I get, the more relaxed I feel about it.
I don’t want to be an old dad, though, I want to be able to still beat them at squash when they’re 18. My sister Mererid says to me: “Why don’t you just find yourself a normal girl?” – but I am just trying to find myself a girl.
Going through a break-up in the public eye is pretty crap [Gethin split from former fiancée Katherine Jenkins in 2011]. More than anything, a lot of stuff you read in gossip mags about it is not true. And that’s hard on your family because they ring you up and you have to reassure them.
I really fancy [Team GB Olympian] Jessica Ennis-Hill. I interviewed her once and I spent 20 minutes trying to remember what I was going to ask her because I just found her so gorgeous. Obviously, she has an incredible body, but she is so nice and when she smiles, it’s like: “What were you saying?”
Old people can make me cry. I worry about getting old, and old people inspire me to live life to the full. My nine-year-old nephew Alby makes me cry too. He has autism and sometimes, after I’ve been to see him, I have a bit of a cry on the way home because I worry about his future. I try to turn that fear into a positive, though, and do a lot of work to raise awareness about autism.
A gay friend of mine told me recently that if you Google ‘Gethin Jones naked’, there are a lot of fake, Photoshopped nude pictures of me. It’s horrendous but it makes me laugh, and I send them to some of my friends as a joke. Some of them are incredibly realistic, I might add. There is one where I am lying down and holding the old boy – but you can tell it’s not me because I only have half a finger in the picture!
I don’t have any tattoos, but I wish I did. I have never had the guts. I would like a full sleeve, but trends change so you never know what is going to stay cool. Remember when we all used to wear baggy, loose jeans and we thought that was really cool? My friend Ollie just got a lifeline tattooed on his arm and it looks so good, I hate him for it.
I am a terrible cook but I eat pretty healthily. I am doing that thing at the moment where you prepare meals for the week, put it all in Tupperware and take it around with you. I have some chicken and broccoli with me in my bag at the moment. I can’t believe I have become that person. I will never be the kind of person who Instagrams pictures of my food, though. I hate that!
I’m loving presenting on It Takes Two and am looking forward to taking part in the Strictly Christmas special. Making it to the top three on Strictly in 2007 gave me so many amazing memories. My mum and my sister came to watch me, and my sister used to dress Alby in the sequins that I was wearing to dance in each week. I still get nervous whenever I hear the Strictly theme tune. It brings back memories of wearing a purple shirt, in Cuban heels, doing the cha-cha and Craig [Revel Horwood] giving me a four. I think Craig has scarred a lot of people for life!
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two Weekdays 6.30pm BBC Two
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