James Haskell’s Celebs Go Dating debut exposes truth behind messy divorce from Chloe Madeley
It was 'dark and painful'
So, Celebs Go Dating is back, and the drama has already been delivered, mostly thanks to James Haskell’s mum and the very chaotic energy surrounding his past marriage.
The former England rugby player, 41, split from Chloe Madeley in 2023, but now he’s on TV dating again, and unpacking what actually went wrong. Spoiler: It’s a lot.
Before signing up, James made sure Chloe — who he shares three-year-old daughter Bodhi with — was on board. He said taking part in the show has “reconfirmed what I want in life”, which feels… convenient timing.
His mum, Susie Haskell, made a surprise appearance on the show, and immediately dragged his entire romantic history. James knew it was coming too, saying: “Mum is an absolute loose cannon at the best of times. I am dreading what’s going to come out of her mouth. As long as she does not upset my ex.”
Reader, she upset his ex.
Susie didn’t hold back, saying: “I’m not sure where he’s gone wrong because prior to his marriage, I met lots of lovely girlfriends. Each of them just loved me, which is a bonus.
“I do have quite a strong opinion on why I think it went wrong. You can’t have two stars because you have them competing for the floor space the whole time.”
Yikes.
Chloe, daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, has been very open about how bad things got.
Speaking previously to The Sun, she said: “It’s two years since we separated and it’s been f**king long enough, our life has very slowly fallen into place as co-parents and as ex-husband and wife.
“It’s fine now, but the divorce process has been incredibly emotional and volatile. We have weeks where everything’s fine and we get on really well.”
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She also admitted the end of the marriage hit hard, saying she felt like she had “failed” and describing the whole thing as a “dark”, “sad” and “painful” time.
“The last year of the marriage was awful. It was so dark, painful, and one of the worst periods of my life. It’s a good thing we ended it. It was so incredibly scary,” she said.
“I’m amazed I got through it in the way that I did. I think more people should see it as a positive thing. I’m so proud of myself and so relieved that I actually called it a day. I’m never going to go into great detail about why we broke up because it’s not fair on anyone and I wouldn’t want him to either, but what I will say is it was f*****g awful.”
Now James has added his side, and it’s pretty blunt. Speaking to MailOnline, he admitted: “If I put more time into my marriage than I did Guinness, then I wouldn’t be divorced now.”
Between brutal mum commentary, very public admissions, and both sides agreeing it was “awful”, this isn’t exactly a mystery breakup.
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