Rylan Clark is well known for his love of fake tan, admitting he once spent £400 getting the product shipped to India while filming Rob and Rylan’s Passage to India with close friend Rob Rinder
Rylan Clark says he has “never felt so free in his life” as he made a personal admission. The 37-year-old former Big Brother presenter is well known for his love of fake tan, once admitting that he spent “hundreds” shipping his favourite product to India while filming with close friend Rob Rinder.
However BBC Radio 2 star Rylan says it has been six months now since he last decided to slap on his favourite fake tan. Rylan jokes that his bedsheets have now “stayed white” and his partner Kennedy Bates, who he began dating last year, is also approving of his decision.
On his Rylan on Saturday radio show, the star however admitted he can “never say never” and hinted he could return to tanning in the future. He said: “Believe it if you want or not, I’ve not worn fake tan since about July last year, genuinely I have not.
“I’ve never felt so free in my life. My bedsheets are white, my fella, he’s very happy because everytime I stayed at his life it was like a crime scene the following morning, but yeah, I’ve ditched the tan for now. Never say never, I’m sure there’s certain things that could get me in a little bit of fake tan.”
Rylan partnered up with close friend Rob for their Passage to India series last year. The pair followed the footsteps of Rob’s literary hero EM Forster who penned the book A Passage To India. It saw them stepping out of their comfort zone, something that Rylan admits initially worried him.
Their journey began in Delhi, India’s capital and home to 34 million people, almost four times the size of London. Rylan told the Mirror he was “worried about everything” in the city, adding: “Everyone said, ‘You’re going to get ill, you’re going to get Delhi belly, it’s going to be hot.’ And I thought, ‘This is my worst nightmare.’
“And lo and behold, I get off the plane, it must have been about midnight, and I walk into Delhi airport and get bit in the face by some mosquito thing and I’ve got a golf ball on the side of my cheek. I thought, ‘Here we go.’ Not a great start. I then have about four hours’ sleep, and am chucked into a tuk tuk in the middle of what I can only describe as a Wacky Races replay. I really dived into India head first.”
The insect bite wasn’t the only traumatic experience Rylan had to contend with when he arrived in India either. Once he reached Jaipur to meet the royal family with Rob, he discovered his fake tan had exploded over his luggage. “I was going to fly home,” he joked to the Mirror.
He continued: “There is no fake tan in India, you can’t find it anywhere. It was a nightmare. I ended up having to do some FedEx type thing from London, and it cost me 400 quid, just to get a bottle of St Tropez Bronzing Mousse.”
Rob, 47, admits that such moments occasionally led him to venting his frustrations towards Rylan. He added: “I say in the show that I feel like I’m the benevolent headmistress of a school for excluded children, and that went on for quite some time. You do run out of patience.”
Rylan went on to say the pair both have their “bad habits” but they still bonded during their first series, Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour. He added: “We went into the Grand Tour as acquaintances and left as friends. And we’ve gone into Passage To India as friends and left as best friends.”
Rylan rose to fame when he appeared on the X Factor in 2012. Shortly after the singing competition he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, winning the competition. He has since gone on to present shows such as Big Brother’s Bit on the Side, The Xtra Factor, and Up Late With Rylan. He launched his BBC Radio 2 show in 2019.
