Gemma let the cameras follow her as she and partner Rami had IVF and planned their wedding but she says the results show ‘a real nightmare’ of a year
Gemma’s mother Joan has now moved in with her and Rami as she continues to suffer poor health(Image: PA)
Gemma Collins’ new series Four Weddings and a Baby will see her breaking down in agony after fearing that her mother Joan was at death’s door last year.
Launching the new show Gemma, 45, said it would give a warts and all look at her life over a year. Speaking to Dermot O’Leary at a Sky event in London, she explained: “During making the show my mum nearly died, my relationship was obviously taking a bit of a hit, I was trying to have a baby – my whole world just fell apart.
“Because I was going through so much trauma and struggles, there was no performative person there. Everyone gets to see the real me – you’re in my home. It’s what people don’t see. I was broken.”
She explained that the reality series would be very different to TOWIE and other programmes she has appeared on. “I’m used to being very performative. The camera goes on, The GC comes out, boomshackalack, that’s really how it is. Hold on to your seats because you never know what’s going to happen!
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“But this is a show where I’m trying to have a baby, I’m trying to get married and none of it goes smooth. It’s a nightmare. But it’s not a comical nightmare it’s a real nightmare.”
The series is due to launch on Sky Max later this year. In one clip, Gemma is seen weeping while driving as she explains to the camera how Joan is in hospital and in a very bad way, having caught pneumonia and suffering from a “build up of fluid”.
She explains: “My mum has suffered with chronic illness for 10 years. This is not my first rodeo with her. However, this one has to be the worst. It’s making me realise that mum might not have a lot of time left.”
Viewers will also be able to follow Gemma’s attempt to conceive using IVF, with fiancé Rami Hawash, and also their attempt to organise a wedding. But in another clip she sobs: “Having a baby is not easy. You don’t want to be making the wrong decisions in your life. Then I think f*** it – if mum hasn’t got long left – do I just spend my life with my mum, you know? And then just not have a baby, not get married.”
She told Dermot that the aim of the series was to be “a bit more vulnerable and honest”, adding: “It’s me not having any control over my life, any control over the cameras. It’s very raw.
“Family have always been everything to me, which people haven’t seen, but I think it’s OK to show people you are human? Nothing’s perfect, life’s not perfect and maybe that will resonate.”
Asked how Joan, 70, is doing now, Gemma said that she has moved in to her house and has carers who come regularly. “I’m just so grateful for every day I get to spend with her,” Gemma said. Another clip from the upcoming series shows how the Essex favourite tried to prepare for her second stint in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
In a bid to become less fearful, she invites a snake-handler round to her house and admits the thing she is most afraid of is “a snake wrapping itself around my neck” The woman gives assurance that Gemma won’t be given “anything that’s going to hurt you”. But when the snake is placed around her shoulders it flicks its tail into her face, leaving her sweating and saying: “F***, f***, f***.”
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