helped

GEMMA Collins spent years convincing the world she was living her best diva life – but behind the designer handbags and larger-than-life personality, there was a time when the empire she had worked so hard to build started crumbling around her.

Incredibly, the GC pulled herself back from the brink and banked more than £1.4 million last year. But friends say the feat would have been nearly impossible without the help of one very special man.

Those closest to Gemma have revealed the secret to the Romford-born star’s success is her dad, Alan, who is credited as the only person who can keep Gemma grounded.

A source tells us: “People see Gemma as this unstoppable force of nature, but behind the scenes, Alan has always been her rock.

“When things got difficult financially, he stepped in and took control.

“Gemma trusts him completely. There aren’t many people she would hand that responsibility to.”

For years, Gemma has openly admitted that Alan is effectively the gatekeeper to her fortune.

In one interview, she confessed: “My dad controls all my money. Seriously, I have to ask him if I want to upgrade my car.”

It’s a remarkable admission for a woman who has built a reported £4million fortune and can command up to £75,000 for a single sponsored Instagram post.

But those who know the family say it perfectly sums up their relationship.

Another source tells us: “Alan has always kept Gemma grounded.

“She’s the star, but he’s the sensible head behind the scenes.

“When she gets excited about a new project, he’s often the person asking the difficult questions.”

The latest figures suggest that the approach is paying off.

Accounts for her personal brand, Gemma Collins Ltd, show the company landed profits of around £1.4 million last year.

For fans who remember the financial turmoil of previous years, this is a huge turnaround.

Back in 2017, Gemma Collins Boutique Ltd was forced into liquidation owing around £88,000 to creditors.

The problems continued when she was disqualified from acting as a company director for three years in 2020 after repeatedly failing to meet VAT return deadlines, with HMRC pursuing claims worth more than £71,000.

A separate clothing business was later voluntarily dissolved, while her cosmetics venture, GemmaCollagen Ltd, survived for just a matter of months before disappearing altogether.

One insider tells us: “There was a period where it felt like every business venture came with a headache.

“Gemma never stopped working, but there were definitely lessons learned.

“That’s when Alan became more involved.”

It is perhaps fitting that Gemma’s biggest supporter is also somebody who understands business himself.

Alan built a successful career in shipping and has long been regarded as one of the most influential figures in his daughter’s life.

Fans caught a glimpse of their bond on her reality shows, where Alan frequently offered advice, not just about money but about life itself.

During one emotional conversation about her turbulent romance with James Argent, he told her: “You’ve just got to find some stability in your life when you find the right person.

“As much as we all like Arg, you’ve got to decide if he’s the right person.”

He later added: “For my daughter, I want somebody who’s top dollar.”

Those close to the family say that attitude explains exactly why Gemma places so much trust in him.

One source tells us: “Alan isn’t interested in celebrity.

“He cares about Gemma being secure and looked after. That’s always been his focus.”

Their relationship has only strengthened in recent years.

Gemma has spoken emotionally about her father’s devastating battle with Covid in 2020, when he spent weeks fighting for his life in intensive care.

She has also supported both Alan and mum Joan through a series of serious health scares, including Joan’s breast cancer diagnosis and terrifying hospitalisation last year after she stopped breathing.

The ordeal brought the family even closer together.

These days, Alan and Joan live with Gemma in her £1.3 million Essex home alongside fiancé Rami.

Speaking previously, Gemma said: “They live with me now. They’ve moved into my home, so we’re like one big Irish family.”

And remarkably, there appears to be very little tension under the roof.

Previously speaking to The Sun, Gemma explained: “Rami was absolutely fine with it.

“He loves my parents. They get on really well.

“You’ve got to remember, Rami has been in my family for nearly 15 years.”

The happy family dynamic comes as Gemma prepares for what insiders believe could be one of the biggest chapters of her career.

Later this year, she will return to screens with a new Sky reality series, Four Weddings and a Baby, which follows her wedding plans with Rami and her hopes of starting a family.

One insider tells us: “This show is incredibly important to Gemma because it’s the most personal thing she’s ever done.

“People know The GC, but this is about the woman behind the character.

“She’s genuinely in a really happy place.”

And for Gemma, that happiness feels hard-earned.

Perhaps that’s why those closest to her believe the latest financial success means far more than a healthy bank balance.

It’s proof that after all the setbacks, Gemma Collins is finally enjoying the stability she spent years chasing.

And standing beside her through every twist and turn has been the same man all along.

Former Emmerdale star Anthony Quinlan played Pete Barton for seven years and has opened up about how he adapted his accent to secure the role

A former Emmerdale star has revealed the surprising adjustment he had to make before landing his role on the ITV soap.

Anthony Quinlan is best known for portraying Pete Barton in the beloved drama for seven years between 2013 and 2020, before his character departed the Dales for a fresh start in Liverpool.

The fan-favourite was at the heart of numerous dramatic storylines, and Anthony has now shared insights into his audition experience and what it was like working alongside his on-screen relatives.

Chatting on behalf of Freebets.com, the home of the best slot sites, the Manchester-born actor explained: “A friend of mine was actually auditioning for the character of Pete at the time and I wasn’t even aware the audition process was happening.

“I later had an audition in London, then a second round in Yorkshire and then a screen test. I think there were five of us left for the first screen test and I got a call later that afternoon and they said ‘we really like you but we need to tone down the ‘Mancness’, you’re far too ‘Manc’ for a Yorkshire TV show.”, reports the Daily Star.

“They called me back to audition again over the weekend with another actor so I had the weekend to work on being a bit less ‘Manc’, which I think I managed, although it did creep back in once I was on screen and I auditioned again on the Monday and a couple of days later I heard I’d got the role. I was over the moon. What a great show to be a part of.” Anthony recalled his debut on set, expressing how “so privileged” he feels to belong to one of Emmerdale’s most legendary families across the soap’s 50-year run.

He explained: “We were actually on location on the first day. Kate Oates was the producer at the time and she was absolutely outstanding. Her ideas were so original and she really brought authenticity to the show, using real locations.

“So on the first day it was myself and Joe Gill [who played Finn Barton], working on the farm with Bill Ward [who played our dad James Barton] and a director called Duncan Foster, who was brilliant at easing us in.

“Then Natalie Robb arrived as Moira. I’d watched Bill Ward on Coronation Street for years and what a lovely man and an outstanding actor. Joe, I think that was his first job, what a great talent he is and Natalie Robb is part of the furniture at Emmerdale. It was great to watch how she operates on set and take some mental notes from that.

“We were so privileged. There was so much drama surrounding that family and the audience invested in us, which prompted the writers to invest in us more too. The whole Debbie [Dingle, played by Charley Webb] and Ross [Barton, played by Michael Parr] storyline early on, where Pete marries Debbie and Ross has been sleeping with her behind his back and the whole fight kicking off, that whole drama was unbelievable.

“Over the years I was really fortunate. We did some beautiful stuff with Zoe Henry [who plays Rhona Goskirk], that was a real standout moment and then the whole storyline about their mum Emma Barton [played by Gillian Kearney], coming into the show.

“There were stunts too and I remember Mike Parr hanging me upside down off a viaduct in Harrogate, about 120 feet in the air, which was absolutely terrifying. I did the stunt myself and I remember chasing Kelvin Fletcher [who played Andy Sugden] around Tholthorpe racetrack on a motorbike. Lots of high octane stuff as well as high drama. No day was the same. What a great experience.”

Pete was mentioned in an Emmerdale storyline last year, though Anthony has made it clear a comeback isn’t imminent. He said: “Never say never. but i’s not on the cards at present and nothing has formally been approached.

“A return to Emmerdale is definitely something worth seriously considering if it was ever properly presented but right now I want to keep building on the momentum of the last year or so as things are picking up and in the right direction.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 at 8pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort and relatives of U.S. service members stuck in Qatar to a third country, the U.S. government and some advocates said. Congo is an option, the advocates said.

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said Wednesday that U.S. officials informed him and other groups of discussions between the United States and Congo about taking the Afghan refugees who have been in limbo at a U.S. base in Doha for the last year.

The 1,100 refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah include Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active-duty U.S. military members.

The State Department said Wednesday that it is working to identify options to “voluntarily” resettle the refugees in a third country, but it did not confirm which nations were being discussed.

An alternative provided to the refugees, VanDiver said, is to return to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal or even death at the hands of the Taliban for working alongside the U.S. during the two-decade war.

“You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you,” VanDiver said at a virtual news conference. “That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress.”

The discussions — which were reported earlier by the New York Times — come more than a year after President Trump paused his predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration.

That policy left thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution, and had gone through a sometimes years-long vetting process to start new lives in America, stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.

From one war-torn country to another

Negotiations between the U.S. and several other countries, including Botswana and Malaysia, started months ago, according to an executive at a refugee resettlement agency who was briefed by U.S. officials. The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private negotiations, said that Botswana was seen by many refugee advocates as the most promising option but that talks between senior U.S. officials and the country’s leadership fell through. In early April, the executive was briefed that Congo was now the main option being discussed.

A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said they had heard from State Department personnel that the U.S. was looking at sending the Afghans at the base in Qatar to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The person said the Afghans were told Wednesday that there was no final deal on where to send them.

The base in Doha “was always intended as a transit platform. It was never designed to hold families for months or years, which is the situation that people are currently in,” said Jon Finer, who was deputy national security advisor to then-President Biden. “What I want to emphasize is that this was intended to honor a wartime commitment.”

Finer and other former U.S. officials and refugee advocates warned of the risk of resettling Afghans in Congo, a country that U.N. officials say is facing “one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the world.”

The African country has been battered by decades-long fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in its eastern region.

Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on the discussions, which did not come as a surprise to some there. Congo is one of at least eight African nations that were paid millions in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

Like most other African nations involved in the deportation program, Congo is also among the worst-hit by the Trump administration’s policies on aid and trade. At least 70% of the country’s humanitarian aid came from the U.S. before Trump’s second term, and aid workers say American aid cuts have led to avoidable deaths in the conflict-hit region.

Sean Jamshidi — an Afghan American who served in the U.S. military, including a stint in Congo — said he was deeply concerned about his brother possibly being sent from the Doha base to the war-torn country.

“I saw the security situation and what it looked like there. I saw the displacement camps. … I stood in places where the United Nations has counted the dead,” Jamshidi said. “I’m telling you, as someone who has been in uniform, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not a place you send vetted Afghan allies and their children to live.”

Refugees are in the dark as they await their fate

Negina Khalili, a former prosecutor in Afghanistan who fled during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, has been waiting to hear about the resettlement status of her father, brother and stepmother since they arrived at the Doha base in January 2025. That was just days before Trump suspended the refugee program soon after he returned to the White House.

Khalili told the Associated Press on Wednesday that she spoke to her family about reports that they could be sent to Congo.

“They are not giving them any information or updates regarding which countries they will go to,” she said. “They were so stressed and worried about it and said that Congo is not a safe place either. They don’t know if it’s a temporary location for them there or a permanent location. They are worried.”

She said U.S. officials at the camp have been suggesting to refugees that they go back to Afghanistan and offering them money to do so.

Amiri, Santana and Asadu write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from New York and Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria. AP writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.