That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Jamie Laing

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

In this episode Gaby chats with ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ finalist and ‘Made in Chelsea’ star Jamie Laing. He talks about his childhood, fame and being a celebrity, his love of Strictly and opening up about mental health. Also, reality TV shows and how they have changed over the last ten years, starting his own sweet company ‘Candy Kittens’ and his podcasts called ‘Private Parts’ and ‘6 Degrees from Jamie and Spencer’. Plus, we hear from his partner from Sophie ‘Habbs’ Habboo and listen out for a podcast first - a marriage proposal! Produced by Cameo Productions, music by Beth Macari.  Join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter @gabyroslin #thatgabyroslinpodcast For more information on the sponsors of this episode:CALM - Special limited time promotion of 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at www.calm.com/GABY  Grass and Co. - 25% OFF, plus free shipping at: www.grassandco.com/GABYUse discount code: GABY at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabby Roslyn here, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. There are lots of giggles and lots of honesty in this chat. It's the brilliant Strictly finalist and Made in Chelsea star, Jamie Lang. I think you will learn a lot about Jamie that you possibly didn't know before. We talk about his childhood, his continued naughtiness, fame and being famous, his love of Strictly, his mental health and reality television shows. Also his brilliant sweet company called Candy Kittens. and his podcasts called private parts and six degrees from Jamie and Spencer.

Plus, we hear from his gorgeous partner, Sophie Habs, as he calls her, one of the stars of Made in Chelsea too. And I believe this may be a podcast first. A marriage proposal on this podcast? Please, can I ask you a favour? Would you mind, please, following and subscribing by pressing the follow or subscribe button on the show. Now, I have to tell you, this really honestly does not. cost any money. It's completely free. And then if you wouldn't mind, rate and review on Apple

Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. You simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes and you'll see the stars where you can tap to rate and press write a review. It would mean the world to us. Thank you so much. Jamie Lovely Lovely Lang, how are you? Oh, do you know what? I am. I've got to the point now where things are getting a little bit of So I'm a little bit like, I could do with a mix-up right now. But apart from that, I'm okay. I'm going to mix it up for you then. Let's mix it up. Let's mix it up. Let's mix it up. If you can mix up in any way, I would love that. Okay, ready for it. Here we go. First mix-up, did you know that I can buy you for £6.90, full-size you? Am I clothed? Am I not clothed? What do I look like? I'm pleased to say you look just like you, but you're made of cardboard.

Really? For six pounds. Did you not know this? No. No, 16 pounds 90. 60, that's a rip-off. You can buy it. 16 pounds 90 you can get pretty, it's a life size. You know, it's not full-size life size, but it's not a little one that you have next to your bed. I have this urge to order it because I just, this is completely true. As you know, I completely adore you.

But when you were in strictly, the family cheered every single time. We voted and we did all of that. And Karen, who I've known for a very long time, I kept sending her messages. and we were dancing around to one of your dances. So if I had a cardboard cut out of you, I could dance with you. You could dance with me. I don't know how responsive I would be as a cardboard cut. That's my only fear.

But I think that I would give you company. I would really, I would cheer you on. And also I would channel all of my energy into my carball cutout. And hopefully that would be quite weird, wouldn't it, if I just channel all my energy. It would. But also, what's even weirder, is alongside the cardboard. I've got it all sorted, you see.

Actually, you and Spencer have got to do this, so he's got to get the cardboard cut out of you. But you can also get the cardboard mask, face mask of yourself, you know, the full mask, for £3.89. So under £20, I could be you and I could have a cut out of you. Do you know what? If you paid me $20, I'd probably come around to your house anyway.

So I think, so actually I think... Yeah, but you'd have to wear a mask and you'd have to be on the... That is true. That is true. That is true. But if you, honestly, if you pay me... me 20 pounds, I'd run round. I'd run round, I'd wear a mask, and say hey. Do you think that once you have a cardboard cutout of yourself, do you think that's when you've made it? Yeah.

Do you think that's the time where you can kind of go, do you know what, I've actually made this? Now, in your mum's day, it was probably they had to go on Morecambe and Wise. Then it was go on a spitting image and, and nowadays it's going, Anten Deck or get a cardboard cut out. Yeah, I think that's exactly it. I think it's that. What was it when I was, what was it when I was growing up. What was, I was into bubble heads. I tell you what, if you were on the, if you were on a pog, if you were on a pog, if you were on a pog, that would have made it for me. I used to love pogs more than anything. Let's make that happen. Yeah, if you can get me, honestly, if you could get me on a phone, I once, I went over to my friend, I can still remember his name, his name was David Sykes. I went over to David Sykes's house and he had loads of pogs. And for anyone who doesn't know what pogs are, I can't even explain them to you anyway. So just imagine them. I don't know what they are. They're sort of like a carb. board round thing. They're round, completely round. Completely round. Some of cardboard, some of plastic, and you collect them. And I went round to David Sites' house. I saw he had a metal one and I was like,

no way. I must be five years old. And so I took it. I stole it and put it in my pocket. And as I was walking out his house saying goodbye, it fell out my pocket and everyone knew I'd try to steal a pog. Oh, Jamie. Terrible. Have you ever seen him since? I haven't. No, I haven't. We weren't friends after that. I don't think. I don't think that. I don't think The little boy who stole things was not allowed to out of us anymore. And look where you've got to now fighting crime. You see, if you'd been famous and fighting crime then, do you see the way I'm linking it into all the things you've done?

Oh my God, that transition was unbelievable. Yes, thank you. I'm even proud of that. So if you were famous and fighting crime, what would you do to that five-year-old little Jamie who'd stolen that poor kids, Pog? I think, listen, I think as kids, right, what we have to do is we have to, you have to learn things for yourself. So as a kid, I used to steal loads of different things.

I don't really know why. What do you mean? What did you steal? I would think I was like a magpie. Honestly, I think I was like a magpie. I just liked shiny things. So I used to steal, what did I steal when I was a kid? I stole keys to the house.

I don't know why I did that. Who's keys? What do you mean for your house or other people's? It would have to be quite a good robbery if I stole them to other people's houses and then robbed them. But I didn't do that. It wasn't like a tactical thing. It was not for thought out at all. I used to steal my mum's keys for some reason.

I used to steal money. I used to steal fizzy drinks because I wasn't allowed them. And then there's one time, there was this one time because I used to steal everything. My grandma used to live up the road from us. And her peanut bowl, a peanut bowl, right, went missing. It was a round, it was a wooden bowl. It went missing. And of course, I was the one who had to have stolen the bowl.

So for a whole weekend, I was made to look in her house to tell her where I had stolen. And I was like, well, I haven't stolen this effing peanut bowl. So I don't know what it was. And then they found the peanut bowl and everyone was very upset. What did Granny say? Granny said nothing. Granny said nothing. She said, well, if you still things, then people are going to think it's always you.

But I kind of feel like that. So if I was a police officer, I feel like young kids have to find out mistakes for themselves. And I think a lot of the time parents tell them not to do things. I think there's like boundaries right you should have. But kids just sort of find out what's good and bad on their own. Is that really bad parenting? Yeah, Jamie, here's a thing. Yeah, it's okay.

When we do these podcasts, the press do pick up on them, I can now see the headline. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jamie Lang admits he's a thief. Listen, if you're young kids, just do all the bad things. You should steal. You should. No!

What would your mother say? I mean, apart from the fact that, I mean, I've seen you with your mother discussing sexual positions. I mean, please. That your mother knows that. about you. I just am mortified. If I, I just, I wouldn't want to know that in my kids. They're only teenagers. I don't want to know it. I don't think she wants to either. I don't think she's weird. I think so my mum, I went to boarding school, right, at the age of

eight years old. And so. Well, are you surprised? You were stealing everything. They needed to get you out. I went to prison at the age of eight years old. They said it was boarding school, but it was actually juvenile. But I went to boarding school at the age of eight. It was a lot. It was, was the done thing in our family. My dad went to boarding school at a young age, lulli, all that kind of stuff. So it's just that old English kind of tradition, I suppose. And going to a private school as a tradition, imagine. But I was sent there. And so my mum kind of missed out on my upbringing in a sense. And so she always wanted to know everything about me. So she always asked me personal questions. Who are you kissing? Who's your girlfriend? And so I would always

deny, deny, deny, tonight. But when I, and I wouldn't tell her anything, but then when I got to an older age, and I found it funny to ask her questions or get her to ask me questions about sex and things like that because when you're younger, it's okay because it's quite sweet and you're asking what girls you're kissing or what boys are kissing or what's this and that. When you're older, it's a bit awkward.

It's like bathing me at this age. It'd be quite weird. And so I find it funny to put my mom in an awkward situation where she has to find out different things about it because I like to see her reaction. I think it's hilarious. What does she make of all of your, not your sexual positions, we'll leave that, but what does she make of your fame?

Because Maiden Chelsea, you started in it nearly 10 years ago. And in those 10 years, you've done so much, but you have become famous. I mean, as simple as that, there's so many things that we'll talk about. But fame, how does your mum cope with that and your family cope with your fame? Well, I don't, listen, I don't know if it's, maybe it is. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what fame is really now. But I suppose some people recognize me, maybe that's some sort of,

fame I don't know but I think um how does my mum react to it my mom is one of these people she's an amazing woman but she's also she's she's quite kind of cutting in lots of ways so she will never really acknowledge the fact that I've done this or done that the proudest thing I've actually done is when she watched me doing strictly that was the power as she's ever been because she loves strictly more than anything she's quite black and white in that kind of way but you know when I first started doing Chelsea they all said it was a terrible idea. They let me do it, but it was, you know, it was about us running around drinking too much and trying to sleep with different people and being posh. It wasn't really the best look at the

beginning, I suppose. But I think that, again, what was quite good about her is that I made, and we all make a lot of mistakes and a lot of positive, you know, mistakes, but I think she kind of just let me get on with it and hoped that I would come round to being a nice boy or a nice man or a nice, whatever it is. But you are, you are. I think so. So yeah. No, you are. You're a good bloke. You are.

You're a good egg. I have to just say that I can hear Habs. I can hear Sophie in the background. Yes. She's eating and sniffing a lot. Bless her. Hey, go. Say hello.

Say hello. Say hello. Say hello. Hi, guys. Hello, lovely. What's she eating? Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'm eating lunch.

She says she's eating lunch. We have to be sharing the same room because obviously we're in lockdown. So if you hear anyone eating in the background, it's Sophie in the background. but she's just, I'm giving her all these looks, but she's fine. But she, we just, do you know what? It's funny with lockdown, right? Is that, so we spent now, we spent a year together, Sophie and I, in this sort of situation, like a lot of different people.

And actually, what it's done for us is it's made us closer. I mean, we've nearly killed each other a few times. But apart from that, we've done all right, I think. And you were teased all the time on Strictly because there was something that you said you'd do if you reached the final. Yeah, I said I would marry her. I said I'd ask her to marry me. And when she found that out,

She honestly, I've never seen someone with so much anger saying, if you do that on television, I will never speak to you again. Sofers, weirdly, as much she does a TV show, she does many shows, she's actually quite a private person, which is a complete contradiction, but she kind of likes, she doesn't really like talking about her motion. She kind of holds those in, you know, she doesn't really like that sort of public affection in terms of doing all these different things. So her idea of a worst day out would be me asking her to marry her.

You just have to do it privately and get married privately and tell us all when it's happened. Although that won't happen, it will be in Hello magazine, shortly. Do you know what? I don't think it would. I don't know. Would it be in Hello? I don't think I would do that. I think if I was ever going to ask Sophie to marry me. What do you mean if? Well, she may say no. Well, that's not me asking. I think, you know, she might say that. Sophie's more likely to say no to marrying me than me actually, me saying, because I'd quite happily say, do you want to marry me? probably say no at the moment. Probably because I just annoy her a lot. But I think that if...

I'd love to see her face right now with her listening to this. Yeah, she's actually not, she's actually ignoring and just looking at her phone. She's not even reacting. I'll ask her, so do you want to get married? She just laughed. She just laughed and just looked at me. So just quickly, why wouldn't you want to get married to me now? Don't laugh. Just say. Do you want to get married? Do you want to get married? Do you want to get married? No, see. What is that? She just doesn't want to get married. Not yet. It's a not yet, Jamie. Yeah. And also we have a whole eyes, but I think at some point, the coolest thing in the world, right? This is what I've always thought. So I, I for a lot of my life, struggle with the idea of monogamy, right? Because I was

like, do you really want to be with one person forever and all these different things? And, you know, my parents were divorced. And so I was a bit, you know, about these sort of situations. But then to be really cheesy and she's covering her ears, when you meet someone that you actually get on with and you actually really like, kind of think it's pretty epic to spend your life with So it's so cool. And you get to do wicked things together. You get to go on adventures together and you get to, you know, learn things together and you get to have babies together. It's awesome.

Oh, I would love to see her face at that bit as well, the baby word. But you two, it's been so public, though. I love the way you say it's very, she's very private and doesn't, you know. I know. It's all very public because made in Chelsea. And I know it's set up, but the setups are done without you knowing it. and you go with the flow. But it's very public.

It is very public. But I think what happens is with these TV shows that a lot of people want to go to heaven without experiencing a bit of hell. People want the only good, right? That's what they think. So people think joining reality shows or Made in Chelsea or whatever is

that it's just going to be super fun and easy and relax and you're just going to have a great time and you're probably going to get followers and this is going to happen. And that's what people think's going to happen. But actually, what you don't, think about is how you have to show your full life and how you have to show the highs and the lows and how sometimes you're not portrayed in a way that you like the look of where you're

portrayed and all these different things and so you you join a show because um lots of different reasons why people join these shows but i think why did you join then i joined because i thought totally honestly i thought i was 21 years old i came out of lead university studying theater and performance and i had a two-two and i thought Jesus who's going who's car am i going to watch and i thought this is not going to be good. I've been asked to do it. I kind of said no because I thought it was a bad idea. I always wanted to go into television, always did, wanted to be a presenter since I was a kid. I've always wanted to do it. And I spoke to my great friends, one of my best friends at university's mom, who's very high up in television. And she said, don't do it. I thought,

well, why not? She said, because it'll be the death of you. And I thought, well, I just shouldn't follow logic. And actually, I think it would be quite fun to be famous or to have this for a bit. and I have no idea where it's going to lead me. And I had a sweet business that I want to start. I thought it was a good marketing idea. So I thought, do you know what? I'm going to do it. Is that all looking for a job in the city where my parents want me to do?

And I don't want to do that. I went for this internship, right? I went with internship at this insurance company when I was 19, 20 years old. And I got up in the morning, as meant to do it for two months over the summer. I got up on them, oh, no, it was six weeks. I got up in the morning at 6 a.m. I put on my suit. I got on the tube.

I got to the office. I got there. I met the guy who was looking after me. He was wearing completely beige suit in a beige tie and everything beige and he just really didn't like a joy. He actually said to me, he said to me, trust me, you don't want to be doing this.

And I thought, why is he telling me that? I lasted two days and I quit. And every single day in the week, I had to pretend I was getting up and going to work so my mum went, no, and I would go around the corner to my friend's house. Yeah, yeah, every single way. And it made me realize then,

I thought I was very lucky because I realized for a young age I had to do something that I loved. Yeah, good for you. And if I didn't, it would be the death of me. And I think it's very easy coming from a position that I was because my dad gave me an allowance

and I had a roof over my head and different things like that. So I had the ability to find out what I didn't want to do where a lot of people don't have that ability, right? They have to go and work in Sainsbury's or co-op or whatever it is or go and work in the family business or anything like that.

So they don't have that choice. So I thought it would be a lot of fun to go and join a TV show because I didn't know where it would leave me and I thought being famous would be fun and I had this sweet business idea. But you're very, you know what I love about you is you're very honest and you know that you come from a privileged background. You've never denied it. You don't, you don't. You also don't push it. And exactly as you say, you were very lucky. You had an allowance. You had a roof over your head over your head. You know, you had family behind you. And you just thought,

right, I'm going to do it. And it's very interesting. When I look at all the new people, who go into Maiden Chelsea. You know, I used to watch it in the beginning, and I, you know, Ollie's, I've got very friendly with Ollie, and I know all the others as well. And I thought in the beginning, it was, it just, it amused me. And I mean that in a really nice way. I liked it, you carried along, you were sitting there smiling and laughing

and all of my friends, all of my girlfriends, we used to talk about it a lot. Now, I feel that, and I don't just mean Made in Chelsea, but a lot of the reality shows, you feel that some people, and also, I don't mean Sophie, I've interviewed Sophie, she's just, You can say so she won't hear you, don't want. You'll hear when she listened. But a lot of the people that join some of the shows, it's about their product.

It's about their fame. Totally. As you say, it's about getting more Instagram likes and getting more followers because then they can push this, that and the other. And it feels different than it did 10 years ago. Yeah, that's totally it. So 10 years ago when I was doing the show, it was about a group of mates. And we actually were friends, right? So we all grew up together.

We all knew each other. We were all friends, all these different things. And it wasn't a job. It was a laugh. It was just fun. We thought, what, we get to be on TV, and we get to film with all of us, and it's gonna be fun,

and all these different things, we get to paid to do it. That's epic. We're like, this is unbelievable. Honestly, we had no idea, there was no social media really out there. There was Twitter had just started, so that was about it.

But there was nothing at all, so there was no feedback, right? So you didn't have any feedback from anyone. I mean, you get feedback from critics, right? That's pretty much about it. And the odd person who was shout at you in the street, saying, wine cow or whatever that was really the only feedback that you got and it was just a bunch of mates the

problem now it's not a problem but how it's changed is that it's now these TV shows it's become a career path yeah so people think that they can make a career out of it they go oh my god this and that and I was actually talking about this the other day with someone I think there's a danger with that right because it's like a lot of people who go and do Love Island or they you go and do the jungle, let's say, or you go and do this and you go and do that. Or strictly, for example, I feel like if you do these shows, there has to be kind of an idea or a game plan behind it, not in terms of a game plan in, you know, how you're going to portray yourself, but in terms of what you want to do, because once you become famous, let's say, you do Love Island or you do

Maiden Chelsea and you get some sort of thing, you'll then just famous. Yeah. And that's epic, because people will recognize you and they may take a photo with you, you get more photos, and Yeah, possibly you can work. Brands may want to work for new stuff for that. But in terms of what you're doing, it doesn't really change much. But I think what people think is that it's going to change everything for you. They think that your world's going to blow up and you're going to get this and that. And actually, nothing really changes.

And so you have to have an understanding of what you want to do if you go and do these shows, if you want to be a presenter, if you want to go and help the planet, whatever it is, rather than just wanting fame. And I think that's the problem that people think fame is a job, but it's not a job. Does that make any sense? Absolutely. And I'm delighted you said that because I feel, I feel very strong. You know, it's unfair to pick on Love Island.

And I've met, you know, some of the kids on Love Island are just the loveliest people. Yeah, totally. And they want to do good. But there is this mentality about fame and this clawing anxiety for, I want to be famous. I want to be famous. And you've also, and it doesn't help mental health issues. And you've been very open about mental health issues and you say very openly on your Instagram about it.

And I salute you for that. And you've spoken on my radio show about it. And it doesn't fix what's going on inside your head or inside your body. It doesn't fix things. No. Fame actually, unfortunately, in lots of way, feeds it in a negative way, right? Because you've got to kind of look at yourself. And, you know, this is, I'm chucking myself into this barrel, right?

There has to be, you know, okay, if you want to become just famous, right, or you want to get no trial. There has to be something, you know, you want validation. some sort of way you want to, because you don't know the people right out that. If you went to my brother and asked him if he wanted a bit of a TV show, he'd say, absolutely not. And you say, well, why wouldn't you? And he said, well, I don't want anyone to know who I am. You don't want, I don't want people to know who I am and things like that. And so for him, it's totally different. For me, I was like, well, it would be fun for people to know who I am and this and that and oh my God, it'd be great. But you don't know these

people, so you're getting validation from people from complete strangers. And the problem with social media and and all of this towards mental health. I said this actually so true the other day on Instagram is that I honestly believe right in life we're meant to have a village mentality. We're meant to know 150, 200 people. When you get married, right, you sort of have about, you know, if you're lucky, you have 100 to 200 guests. I mean, and that's huge wedding, right? But that's sort of everyone that you know. That's cousins, friends who are family members. You may have more, but that's what you have. And out of all those people, you have this sort of unique selling point. USP right, something that makes you yourself. You can be the best at scuba diving. You can be the best

at doing a podcast. You can be the best accountant, the best person going to the gym. Something that makes you, you, you, you know, you've got the funniest person or something that makes you. Probably social media now is that you wake up every single morning, you look at it and you see that people are doing better than you in your industry, whatever that is, whether you're a personal trainer, you're a broker or you're a car driver. Everyone's always doing better than you. So you feel inadequate because you feel like you lose your sense of self and that just goes to your mental health and the problem with these shows that people go on and the reason why mental health is so great in them and and there's a lot of blame that goes to the actual television shows right the Love Islands and the main chance of the

reality shows and look people can sort of say that it's these shows that that sort of drive mental health but actually when people get famous or have some sort of it becomes addictive in some sort of ways. You, the notoriety, the brand deals, all that kind of stuff. But the problem is, it's very hard to maintain because fame is like, fame is a sort of novelty thing. And especially overnight fame. So people then want to still go after that. And it becomes this sort of drug that you continuously want. And when that fades away, because ultimately at some point in your life, unless you're the Rolling Stones, it does disappear. If you keep trying to chase it, it's only going to lead to disaster, I think. And I think that's what drives a lot of

It's great that you talk like this. It really is because there'll be a lot of kids that watch you and think, look, so he got into Maiden Chelsea, so maybe I'll do it. But actually, you've gone way beyond that. You've got two lots of podcasts. I mean, Candy kittens, can I just say the funniest thing is that when my youngest realized, when I said, I can't even remember how it came up. We're watching strictly.

And she said, oh, you know, Jamie? I said, yeah, I've interviewed him a couple of times. She went, oh, yeah. I said, you know, candy kittens, your watermelon sours that you love. that yes, a gluten-free and palm oil free. And she says, yes. I said, that's Jamie. She went, no, to be so stupid, mom.

She's 14. So she hasn't watched Maiden Chelsea. And I said, no, that is. She said, what? Okay, so she loved you before. Now, when I said this morning that I was interviewing you for the podcast, she just went, candy kittens. And it was it.

And actually, I love that, that she, it wasn't about your fame. It wasn't about strictly. It was that you've done something and you've gone out there and you created a product that people know and love. How great is that? It's so great. And go with listening. I'm going to send your whole family a whole bunch of them.

You'll get loads. 100% I'll get your address. I'm like, no, but I want to. Listen, without a doubt, I'm going to send you. We've got loads. Don't worry about it. But do you know what? And I'm such an advocate.

So, especially now, right. So if you ask the younger generation, right, and I say because now I'm 32, I say the younger generation, lots of people, you know, when we hire anyone at Candy Kittins, And we say, okay, you know, you ask what's your five-year plan or, you know, I actually hate that question. What's your favorite plan?

But you sort of ask what you want to do. Most people now say that they want to become an entrepreneur. Oh, I want to be an entrepreneur. And it's a very sexy term, right, to be an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah. 10 years ago, no one was an entrepreneur unless you were Bill Gates, right? Because everyone has phones and things like that and access to other people being successful, everyone thinks they can be an entrepreneur.

And everyone can. And I'm a huge advocate in the younger generation actually going out there and following their dreams and doing what they want to do. Oh, I completely agree with you. Completely agree with you. Absolutely, right. And it's scary and all these different things. And also there's a part of me which, you know,

I understand that people like security and this kind of stuff, but I always believe, you know, why would you want to make another person a success? Why wouldn't you do it for yourself? Why would you want to work for someone else? That's my view of it. That's always why I want to do something myself. But lots of people have different views, right?

But I think that also what I want people to realize, and this is so important, is that candy kittens, and from what I understood, I was not planned in the way that it happened, right? I always believe, and I think the gun-kitter is, that naivety is your biggest weapon, and a lot of people don't realize this. You know, so I think that a lot of people think

that they need to start a business because they need to know everything about it, and they need to know what you're doing, and you need to follow down this and do that. But actually, I go completely against it. When we started Candy Kittins, myself and my business partner, We were 21 and 22 years old. We had no idea how to make sweets. We knew that we wanted to make sweets and that was it.

And you need to have a destination of where you're heading, right? Whatever that may be. So we knew we wanted to make sweets. But we made them gluten-free because we thought, well, that would be fun. We made them without parmogs. We'd like, well, that would be great. Yeah, we made them more expensive because, truthfully, we couldn't afford the margins at the time. But then that made a brand-new category of sweet called gourmet-gum gummy candy.

We created the category. All of that was naivety. We just didn't follow the route. And I think a lot of the time, what the younger generation think is that they need to follow logic. They need to follow what everyone else has done in order to achieve what they've achieved. But actually, I would say totally opposite. If you follow logic, you get back in the same place of everybody else, a place where you shouldn't be. So if you're flying a plane or driving a car or something like that, follow logic because it gets you back in the safe place where you want to be.

But if you're starting a brand or you're doing something that you want to do, don't follow logic because that gets you back in the same place everybody else. Go against the grain. do something completely unexpected. Follow your gut because no one else has done it your way, so your way is going to be different. And that's what we do with Candy Kiddins. That's how we made it successful is because we said, well, we want to do it that way.

And everyone told us not to do it that way, but we think that's right. And I really believe more people should follow that. That's a great idea, actually. But also, you had the support there. So you had the background there, and you had people supporting you, and you say you had a business partner.

There were a lot of people who want to start up businesses. We didn't have the support, if I'm totally honest. No, I don't mean money support. I'm talking about you had people behind you going, yeah, go on there, do it, do it. Or did you not have that? No, we didn't have any of that. Oh, my word, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we didn't have any of that.

I had an idea to set up a sweet company and at the beginning it wanted to be a sweet shop. It was a mixture between Hugh Heathner and Willie Wonka. That was my idea. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was my idea. I wanted to make a sexy sweet shop. I wanted to make the Abercrombie and Fitch version of the sweets world.

And if people don't remember what Abercrombie Fitch was, it's where really good looking people used to stand on the door, topless, and sexy people used to sell clothes. So I thought it would be sweets and sex. That's the two things combined. I sent this to my family, to my mum, to my dad. And because I was this ADD, ADHD, reckless child who was nearly suspended loads

and all these different things, they thought, it's just going to be nonsense. It's never going to happen. So they didn't actually believe it was going to happen. or that it was ever going to work. So no one paid attention to me. I met my business partner, this Welsh guy called Ed Williams, who's just been my business partner for like nine years now, an amazing guy.

And he was the one who kind of said, right, yeah, you know, this is going to be a great idea. Let's not make it a sweet shop. Let's make it pack as a sweets. And let's build it that way. And we did it completely by ourselves. And we just had to figure it out as we went along. That's fantastic. It was amazing.

We went to like Cologne in Germany to do a sweet. convention to go meet all the different people who made sweets. We went out to this sweet manufacturer who actually now makes our sweets for us, a German company called Catchers. This was nine years ago. He said, hey guys, do you mind make our sweets for us? It's like going to Coca-Cola as two 21-year-olds and saying, can you make us a fizzy drink? They went, yeah, okay, but if you do 200 tons worth in the year, which is like six million quid. You know, we had no idea what we were doing. But it was an adventure. And I think the great thing about when you start a business, the exciting thing, is that you can pivot,

it you can turn, you do things different, and you basically just go on this road of discovery by yourself. It's very interesting because you use the word misconceptions, and there are lots of misconceptions about you. Yeah. The McVitties story, you know, that you're the McVittie air and you're walking around with every biscuit. It's not quite like that, is it? I mean, it's funny how that's completely, you're now the headline sort of when I was doing, because I've met you, so I, but I did some research on you, the latest stuff I was doing. And it still says McVitties, there, McVitties there, Jamie. I think it's because it's something to write about.

I'm sure McVitties, I love that. So truth is, my great-great-grandfather built McVities up. He invented the digestive. They made it into a great thing. We have a huge family. We sold it in the 80s, I think it was the 80s or early 90s. Granddad made a lot of money. Dad inherited a lot.

Us kids, there's so many kids and cousins, things like that. You know, we went to great schools. We went on lovely holidays. We lived in nice houses, all that kind of stuff. And we got given allowances. but in terms of having all these millions in our pockets, it's total nonsense. It's total nonsense.

But it's funny how people want to do that to you. They want to paint you like that. And actually you work extremely hard. And that's been proved when the acting stuff that you've done. I love that you were in the Ab-Fab movie. And you were in Holy-Oaks. Ab-Fat, I mean, please. It's just so sweet.

I don't know why I find that so sweet. But strictly was the thing that, because it caused such a Ferrari, last year that you couldn't do it and then Kelvin went on to win that you were in it this year. So I'm not saying a story that people don't know. But you bloomed in that, Jamie. Oh, that's so kind. Thank you.

You loved it, didn't you? Do you know what? It was one of the best experiences I've ever done. And I think everyone says that. It said, oh, it's the best of my time. But actually, it really, I loved it. And I loved it for, I loved it for lots of reasons. I loved it because I played a lot of it.

a sport at school and being part of a team. I love being part of a team. It's like it's where I feel most at home when I'm part of a team. And I just love that camaraderie with everyone. And I very much felt a part of a team doing it. So I really love that. I think challenging yourself is pretty epic. I think the more people you can challenge yourselves and do that kind of stuff. I think that's really good. And every single week, trust me, going in on a Monday morning and having to learn a salsa, you're literally like this is just death. This is the worst thing I think of everyone. And all you have in your back of her head is you're going,

well, I mean, this is going to be the most embarrassing dancers as they've ever been on strictly. No, I'm never going to get it. I'm never. And then by Wednesday, you start to go, oh, wait, hang on a second. I kind of see where Thursday, okay, Friday, you're sort of doing it properly and then Saturday's the actual show. So you're all challenging yourself to have that sense of achievement

every single week. And do you know what? The other side of it is that I love entertaining. And the fact that we got to go out on Saturday night and entertain everyone in the UK, that was just epic. Yeah. That was so cool.

So all of those things combined, it was just the greatest thing I've done. But it is tough. Oh, mentally, physically, the mental toughness is the hardest thing. Really, that's the hardest part of it. You had wonderful Karen, who I adore. I absolutely adore her.

She's such a good soul. She actually taught me a lot because I'm one of these people, I go, be my friend. Be my friend. You know, I want everyone to be my friend where Karen is the total opposite, where she, she has to let you in and she has to trust you. And once she trusts you and so knows who you are and understands you, she's then your friend for life. And I think that's a, it was a really, it was a really sort of good learning curve for me to realize that you don't have to please everybody. But in fact, you should earn people's, that's how you earn people's respect, I think. But you're a people pleaser. That's absolutely what you're about.

Total people pleaser. And that comes with its benefits, but also it's curses, right? Because it means you sort of make a lot of friends, but also means you make a lot of plans and then have to bail on them because you've said to 400 people that you can do dinner that night or go to their pardon. You can't. And I've done that since I was a kid. And Karen helped you not do that. But it's tough though, right? Because it's also, it's a competitive show. And, you know, I knocked out JJ who had gone to war and had been blown up by a mine. And I had knocked out Ramvia, who was, you know, had a really tough life and had found confidence.

All these things. So people thought I was this sort of white posh supremacists, like charging through just being like, see you later. But as I got, it's not. The way I had no, it's not fixed in any way. No one knows what's happening. And it really is just, you know, on your ability to dance on that night. What you got from that, as a viewer, what you got from that was you having a blast.

And I think that was the most, and wanting to make everybody happy. And that's, to me, that's what you're like. And I know people, you know, I've heard people say, you know, all Jamie's like a puppy dog. Take that as a compliment because actually everybody loves. a poppy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, I, I sat with a taxi driver once, right? And I was having a crap day. This is a while ago. And you know, we all have ups and downs and times. Yeah. I was, I got really deep with him. And I said, what do you think is the real route to happiness? To this, this lovely taxi driver. And he said, accepting who you are. And I was like, do you know

what you're so right? It is. Once you accept who you are, you're kind of okay with things. And I'm a complete puppy dog. My mental age stopped when I was 21. You know, I have lots of things, but as long as you kind of accept who you are, you're kind of okay with it. Carry on. Carry on being like that. Yeah, yeah, I think it's all right. I mean, I'm the same. I'm never going to grow up. Gary, can I ask you a question? Yeah, of course you can.

Does that happen? You know, you have your kids, you have your family. You know, does you ever get to a point where you feel that you know what you're doing or you're feeling responsible or anything or does it just never happen? No, I sit on my kids to wake them up and sing musical theatre songs. There's no... And my people are. My kids keep saying, why do you tell, why do you admit it? I go, because I don't take myself seriously.

And I'm very happy to take the piss out of myself. I really am. And I think that that's what keeps me happy, I suppose, but also hopefully keeps them happy. And I think you have to take on responsibility. Of course you do. And responsibilities are huge when you've got family, when you've got kids and when you've got a life. You know, in life we all have that. But being happy and spreading happy.

I thought as you got older, you know, I always thought my parents had the answers, right? I thought, they know what they're doing. But then you get to your age and you suddenly realise no one really knows what they're doing. You guess. No, nobody knows what. We're all practicing. We're all practicing all practicing all the time. Talking and practicing, do you still not drive?

I still don't drive. Oh, come on, Jamie. Since I was 18 years old, I have booked my theory test. I failed it twice, but I booked it 57 times. Oh, don't be ridiculous. Yes, I have. I promise you. No, that's no.

I now do sound like somebody's very strict mother. What do you're talking about? I know. I know. It's terrible. 23 pounds ago, 57 times. It's just terrible over the past, how many, you know, 12, 13 years, whatever it is. I don't know.

It just goes back to the same thing I said at the beginning. If I'm not interested in it, I find it very hard to do it. But if I'm interested in it, I'll do it. And for me driving, it's not really a necessity at the moment. So. Does Sophie drive? Yeah. Sophie. drives but she went away she is the worst driver I have honestly I could you not

get we we live in Notting Hill right and we had a car and most of Notting Hill is like one way like a lot of the stuff are down there like one way like Portobello is one way the amount of times we've driven up the wrong way I bought to Bello or and and every single time I get in the car with her there's a moment where I go oh my God nearly die and for Sophie she always says I've had that my entire life she used to drive from home to Newcastle where she went to university which is like a four hour drive

I said how many car crashes did you nearly have on the way she said she went about eight each she's never touch wood injured herself or anything like that she looked at me in a weird way she's never injured her

and had a bad crash but she's always on the verge of it oh my word don't let her drive just walk everywhere we do we walk everywhere we do put up and she ran into the road

the other day and they can't leave it Well actually that might have been me because I saw her running across the road in Notting Hill about two weeks ago and I had to who to realise it was her that might have been me there we go that's completely true story

Can we just talk about your podcast as well because they're just great I have to say you know watching some of them because I see some of them on YouTube and I love all your YouTube stuff and listening to them it's about

oh it's just you don't take yourself seriously which I love and my god you take the piss out of Spencer which makes me laugh my favourite thing you did recently which both my kids think is the funniest thing and they do it to me my my oldest is at university and she rings me up and says no I'll call you back why did you call yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah every time she does it I know what you're doing what are you doing and she laughed and it makes her laugh and then I watched you doing it to Spencer and I don't know. Oh, it's so silly. It was so good. For people who don't know what we're talking about, explain what you do.

It actually started because I used to have a nanny growing up, and she used to say to me, she used to say to me. Like, we'll get across and I would say, what? And she'd go, you heard. And I'd be like, well, I didn't actually hear. So I don't know. And so I used to do it to my friends where I'd say something. And they'd say, what, you heard.

Like that, it would be this joke that went on. So that developed into this idea, which I actually saw then on social media where people would phone. So you phone up. your friend on FaceTime and record it. And as they pick up, you say to them, can you just call me back? Sorry, I'm busy at the moment. And they'll be like, what do you mean? You just called me. But like, no, no, you called me. I'm busy. And you would flip it on them and you would play this prank on them. And the greatest thing, you know, we spent, Sven and I have been friends since we're

16 years old and we are sort of, you know, as thick as blood, right, where we're just a bit very close. So we do our podcast together with BBC podcasts at our six degrees where we basically try and track down our favorite celebrities in six calls or less. But the funniest thing about it is that for me, it was just because I like people, right? And I like meeting people and making friends with different people. Spencer doesn't have any friends.

His friends are his wife, his children, and me. That's literally it. So for him, he couldn't care less about tracking anyone down, which I find hilarious because the whole point of it is to be nice and friendly to people. But on some interviews, he's so rude without realizing it. He doesn't get. He does not care.

Yes, I've been one of the people that's interviewed him. And at the end of it, I said, what was the matter? When I've seen you at events, I just wasn't in the mood. Okay, that's why. I'm so sorry. Listen, I can only apologise on his barb, but I can promise you this. It take no offense. He is like that with everybody.

With everybody. That's what his wife said. Yeah, yeah, yeah, with everybody. He's like that. And then I do my podcast with Francis called Private Parts, which we started four years ago. or nearly five, we've done over 200 deaths, and we just interview a different person each week about their deepest and darkest secrets

and stories and things like that. And we just have a really funny time with it. It's amazing. And also, like, you know, I just really like people. I like chatting to people. So it's fun. And you, okay, so we always ask on this podcast,

what makes you properly laugh? Now, I know that there's a lot, but if you think, the first thing that comes into your head, what makes you really properly laugh? Oh my God, that's a tricky one. I mean, there's a lot of in jokes that my girlfriend and I have that makes us really, really laugh, like probably, properly laugh.

But what makes me really, really laugh? Do you know what? Like, my family can make me really laugh like a lot of the time, but something in particular, God, that is tricky. What makes you laugh? Give me an example of what makes you laugh. People falling over. Oh my God. When I was at Lees University, we would walk down to the city centre and there would be this crossing and it got really icy there it would be black ice and I could you not

for about half an hour, 45 minutes I would stand at the side with my friend Cozzi and we'd watch people walking over it with their files and they would wipe out and all of their files would go everywhere and we stood there for about 45 minutes

just waiting for everyone to walk across it it was the funniest thing in the world people falling over is genius people falling over it is genius Robbie Williams when he was on this he and I both completely lost it because both of us, he fell down a manhole and my friend fell down a manhole. There is nothing funnier than watching somebody, as long as they don't hurt themselves, somebody falling down a manhole. A bit of slap, still.

Yeah, you're right. So where do you see, what would you like to be doing? You'd like to be doing a Saturday night TV show, and that's what you told me a long time ago. Is that still what you'd like to do? Yeah. Can I say that long time? Do you know what I would really love that? I love entertaining.

I love chatting to people. do you know what, if I really was going to go for a Saturday night show would just be unbelievable, it would be amazing, it would be great. But with all these things, you know, it takes time and it may never happen, but you've got to kind of wish them. I would, yeah, I would love to have a show where I chat, have fun, interview different people and immerse myself within stuff within television. I get that. That's me too. There is nothing greater than television. I say to my kids that TV comes is my first love and they've got used to it now. All these years, they think Sophie's my true love? Absolutely not. Television, 100%.

I know how you feel my lovely. Thanks for doing this. It's been so lovely to talk to you. Are you kidding me? Thank you so much. And listen, go send me your address on Instagram or wherever, every email, and I'll get you all your family, loads of sweets. You're so sweet.

You are a people pleaser. That's what you're about. That's actually genuine. That's actually a real, I want to send you guys sweets. Yeah, but you are a people pleaser because you just want everybody to smile. And what a great, there's no greater gift. and that's the gift that you want to give everybody is to make everybody smile. So carry on making people smile, my sweet.

Oh, thanks, honey. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Coming up next week is the wonderful, funny, Mr. Singer, Mr. Entertainment, Jason Manford. That Gabby Rawlsing podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions. Music by Beth McCari. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button?

And thank you so much. for your reviews. I promise that the team and I have read them all and we really are rather overwhelmed and they really mean the world to us. So thank you so much. If you kindly leave a review or a comment, that would be lovely. Thank you.