Swash

STACEY Solomon made it a real, er, family affair on Sunday as she headed to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix with her husband Joe Swash and her ex, Dean Cox.

The TV personality shares eldest son Zachary, 18, with Dean, whom she had a romance with as a teenager.

Before heading to the F1 event, Stacey told fans she was going on a ‘special date day’ with husband Joe.

And when they arrived to Silverstone, the star filmed herself walking in as she explained that the couple had also brought along her dad – a big racing fan – for the fun.

“It’s not a date day without bringing your dad,” laughed Stacey as she dubbed Joe a ‘third wheel’.

She then revealed that it wasn’t just her dad who was there, but her ex Dean, too.

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“Do you know who is really important to bring on a date day with your husband? Your last baby daddy and his wife,” said Stacey as she filmed herself with Dean.

Laughing, she panned the camera through the group and said: “Zach’s dad, Zach’s stepmum, my dad are all on this date with us.”

“Gooseberry,” said Joe as he interjected while laughing.

As well as Zach, Stacey is a mum to son Leighton from another previous relationship, and shares three children with Joe.

She has maintained a strong co-parenting relationship with Dean since they welcomed Zach as teenagers.

He even appeared on her TV show, Stacey & Joe, for a one-off as they discussed her teen pregnancy.

The racing reunion comes just days after Stacey revealed their son Zach has headed off to America for the summer.

The teenager has moved stateside to take part in Camp America, with his famous mum admitting it ‘hurt her heart’ to drop him off at the airport.

She said in an Instagram post: “It hurt my heart to drop you off this morning but I know you’re going to have the best time ever, and that camp is so lucky to have our Zachary in their lives for the summer.

“Good luck my darling boy. To the moon and stars and back again.

“Please tell me why I really wanted him to do this experience & I am so happy for him but also so my gut is in knots??”

Joe Swash says discovering family history has made him complete after taking part in Who Do You think You Are? for the BBC

Joe Swash says he feels “galvanised” after learning about the Italian roots of his family. The actor and husband of Stacey Solomon appears on Who Do You Think You Are? hoping to learn more about his family tree.

Former EastEnders star Joe, 44, tells the programme he lost his own dad Ricky when he was aged 39 and Joe was just 12 which had a big impact on his upbringing.

He explained: “My house was full of life and life. And then, when my dad died, for a long time, it was a house full of sadness and grief. So, you know, a lot of the time it was just trying to get through that period. Growing up in London, I was quite vulnerable, not having a father figure, and I had dyslexia and ADHD that wasn’t diagnosed, so I do struggle when I read something, and a lot of the time I was misunderstood as being quite naughty and mischievous.”

Joe says thanks to some “strong women” in his life he stayed on track, and that he feels like he has got some “Italian traits” including wearing his heart on his sleeve. His mum Kiffy tells him that on his father’s side his great grandmother’s part of the family tree were Italian.

At this stage Joe doesn’t know anything beyond his grandad Charlie but his parents were Joe’s great grandad also called Charlie Swash and Maria Raimo. A 1921 marriage certificate shows Maria living at home in Lox Gardens in London with her parents, Giuseppe, Italian for Joseph, and Rosa, Joe’s great great grandparents.

Joe’s great great grandfather Guiseppe Raimo moved from Italy to London and worked his way up from a street performer in poor living conditions to a job crafting Street pianos. He also spoke alongside Sylvia Pankhurst in 1923 at a Communist Workers’ Movement meeting in London. A letter in his name was published in weekly newspaper The Worker’s Dreadnought, condemning the brutality of the fascist regime.

Historian Alfio Bernabei said: “Giuseppe wasn’t simply attending the meeting, he was actually speaking alongside Sylvia Pankhurst. He could see what was going on, he was following events in Italy, and everything was leading towards a catastrophe. Giuseppe would have run terrible risks had he been in Italy, and he was running terrible risks in London.”

Hearing this detail, Joe said: “It really does fill me with a great, great deal of pride to think that he was struggling through life anyway, being Italian, living where they were living, but he still was concerned about what was happening in the world and fascism, so he must have been a man with great moral compass, someone that really stood by what he thought.

“I had so much pride when I found out about him. The journey he went on, the morals and the things he stood up for, the people he rubbed shoulders with, and the way he got out and worked through poverty to make himself and make his family’s life better, just shows real tenacity. Learning about his speech was emotional, it was a total surprise. I think in that moment I felt really close to my relatives, to Giuseppe. It was such a lovely thing to find out.”

Joe also goes to Naples and traces his ancestors back to his five times great grandfather Donato who was born in 1762 and was living in the now largely abandoned but picturesque mountainous town of Senerchia. The family were peasant farmers but did have a brush with crime after being wrongly linked to the Italian brigands in 1867 during the Italian rebellion.

Back in the present day Joe also finds a ‘Raimo bar’ nearby to Senerchia, and is delighted the family name lives on in Italy. Reflecting on everything, Joe said: “For a lot of my life, I’ve never really known who I am, what I am, where my roots are. I don’t know if that’s due to losing my dad at a young age, but being on his journey, it really has sort of like galvanised who I am, where I’m from, the people that made me, how strong they are, they never give up. Hopefully a bit of that tenacity has come down the line to me.”

He added: “I think what I’ll carry with me from this experience is just the importance of where you come from and knowing who you are. As well as the things that I found out about my relatives, especially about Giuseppe. Traits and things from them that I hope I have as well, or that I’d like to introduce into my life, you know. It just made me feel a lot more attached to my heritage, which I’ve never really felt attached to. I very much knew nothing about it before, but after this journey, I feel like I’m part of something.”

* Who Do You Think You Are? With Joe Swash airs on BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesday June 9. The series is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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