Moments before boozed-up stars at the National Television Awards afterparty were kicked out by staff after 1am, one couple quietly slipped out together ahead of the crowds.
BBC Morning Live co-hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones, who have spent a year denying rumours of an off-screen romance, made a beeline for the exit.
In an exclusive picture obtained by the Daily Mail, Helen, 43, can be seen gathering up the skirts of her £750 strapless Solace London gown as they left the O2 Arena’s exclusive Amex Lounge side-by-side.
Her co-host, 48, kept his head down in an obvious attempt not to draw attention to their joint departure.
Alas, tongues were already wagging because the two of them had let their guard down and partied alongside TV executives, the cast of last year’s I’m A Celeb, Love Islanders and a very single Joey Essex.
Onlookers watched as the couple chatted intimately together at the star-studded party.
BBC Morning Live co-hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones made a beeline for the exit just before stars at the National Television Awards afterparty were kicked out after 1am
Helen and Gethin, who have spent a year denying rumours of an off-screen romance, appeared together at yesterday’s TV awards ceremony at the O2 Arena
‘Helen and Gethin were the talk of the town; they were all over each other, there was no hiding it,’ said one.
‘It was like they couldn’t be apart. He would move and then she would, always looking where the other was and always within three metres of the other’s orbit.
Eventually, after we saw for ourselves that they were rather enamoured with one another, we decided to approach them.
So far, they have refused to engage in any talk about the status of their relationship.
The usually smiley and charming Gethin became visibly cagey and even a little uncomfortable at our questions. He refused to discuss any romance with Helen.
She, meanwhile, laughed the questions off. Minutes later, perhaps fearful that too many people had seen them together, they left the building together and with no other friends or colleagues in tow.
A source close to the couple inside the BBC confirmed to us: ‘Gethin is adamant about denying the rumours whereas Helen thinks they should just let it all come out.’
Despite their evident chemistry on the Morning Live sofa, our picture of Helen and Gethin is the first time anything beyond a friendship has been captured between the couple since Helen joined the show in 2023.
It was in 2020 that the Beeb began searching for two permanent presenters to host its new breakfast show with the hope of finding the next Richard and Judy.
Another hugely popular married couple like Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan – who launched ITV’s This Morning back in 1988 and defined chatty morning television for a generation – were exactly what BBC bosses wanted if they were to win a ratings war with their long-running ITV rivals.
It was agreed that, despite not being together, Helen and Gethin had enough in common to make it a success: both had presented Blue Peter and had taken part in BBC’s flagship Saturday night show, Strictly, so were already known to a large section of their key audience.
But 18 months later it appeared the Beeb had found what it was looking for as the Mail’s Katie Hind revealed the rumours they were enjoying more than just an on-screen partnership.
One source revealed the pair were ‘very happy together’.
Indeed, a week earlier the pair had been spotted leaving a spa close to Gethin’s home in Cheshire – 110 miles from Helen’s home in Cumbria – where onlookers reported that they were ‘all over each other’. Helen was also seen leaving the venue with a suitcase.
Despite rumours of the relationship emerging more than a year ago now, sources have been waiting patiently for the pair to go public with their romance
Priya Jaswal, a single lady fresh out of Love Island, ‘spent the first half of the afterparty looking around for Aidan Murphy and the second half on the sofa with Joey Essex’, said one onlooker
They had been spotted after filming for Morning Live at BBC headquarters in Salford, too, leaving on a motorbike together and heading for breakfast in Manchester city centre.
What makes their story so much more enthralling is that they have both had their hearts broken in the past.
Cumbria-born Helen was left devastated when her husband of eight years, rugby player Richie Myler, walked out on her in April 2022, just four months after she gave birth to their third child, Elsie.
Richie quickly moved on with Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of Leeds Rhinos president Andrew Thirkill, the club he played for from 2017 until 2023. Former Radio 5 host Helen announced on Instagram that Richie had ‘left the family home’.
Meanwhile, Cardiff-born Gethin struggled for some years to get over his 2011 split from fellow Welsh star, opera singer Katherine Jenkins.
Despite rumours of the relationship emerging over a year ago now, sources have been waiting patiently for the pair to go public with their romance and finally tell viewers about their relationship.
Perhaps our picture will give them the nudge they need.
Or they should take a leaf out of Olivia Attwood and Pete Wicks’s book as, despite being co-hosts on KissFM, they have made no bones about hiding their relationship.
But the reality star couple avoided the Press at the event and the afterparty, as it seems they are not ready to answer difficult questions about their romance, which appears to have begun less than two months after Olivia’s split from footballer Bradley Dack.
Instead, the pair are happy to be affectionate for the cameras without being questioned.
Love was indeed in the air at the party; a single Joey Essex, 36, stalked around the room and eventually found a single lady fresh out of Love Island: Priya Jaswal.
Priya, 25, left the ITV villa last month and has already split from her on-screen partner, Aidan Murphy.
An onlooker said: ‘She spent the first half of the afterparty looking around for Aidan and the second half on the sofa with Joey Essex.’
BBC bosses would no doubt love a similar dynamic on their Morning Live sofa.
It was a typically boozy affair at the annual afterparty, with guests glugging wine and beer from the free bar as they enjoyed a sparse selection of food with the option of either mini pulled-pork burgers, or churros.
While many let their hair down and indulged, Holly Willoughby and her This Morning successor Cat Deeley were two who scurried away after the ceremony.
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