All the times the cast of Made in Chelsea have straight up said the show is staged

Made in Chelsea markets itself as “structured reality” – which basically means the people, their conversations and dramas are real, but a lot of the situations are set up. But, as the series goes on and on, more people are questioning just how much of the show is real. One set of people who are quite vocal about the show being staged is the cast of Made in Chelsea themselves – yep, they have a lot to say.

Some previous cast members have outright called Made in Chelsea “completely fabricated” and claimed extreme editing is the reason they left the show. They’ve spilled the tea on what their experiences on the show were like, and how real what we see at home actually is. Here’s what they all had to say.

Spencer Matthews said Made in Chelsea is ‘scripted nonsense’

Spencer left the show ages ago, but recently said on his podcast with his wife Vogue Williams that the show these days is nothing but “scripted nonsense”. Vogue read out a fan letter on the podcast, which ended with “I’ve loved Spencer from his acting days on MIC but love you just as much Vogue.” Spencer then replied: “Another person who’s noticed that MIC is scripted nonsense.” Yikes!

Ella May Ding called the cast ‘actors’

Ella was only on the show very briefly, and left to head back to Australia when things didn’t work out between her and Miles. But since then, Ella and Miles have been beefing because she’s called out the show and said the cast are just “actors”. Speaking on her podcast, Ella also said filming the show was “weird” and “intense”.

“I will never be going on that show again or a show like that; that sort of constructed reality, not like real reality,” she said. “I won’t do something like that again because it’s like really weird.”

She continued: “They’re partly actors. Because when I was on set and I would see some of them, like even Ollie [Locke], he has been doing it since the very first season, but I feel like he just knows what to do now. He would never fuck up, he never has to repeat lines, they just knew how to do it. Whereas I was like so confused.”

Hugo Taylor called Made in Chelsea ‘completely fabricated’

In an interview in 2016, Hugo Taylor admitted the show is “completely fabricated”. He said: “The guys are completely characterless fops, it’s ridiculous.” He said the original cast members were actually friends, and still are, but new cast members are simply in it for the fame and money, and fake the on-screen friendships for it. Harsh!

Tom Zanetti didn’t realise how ‘set up’ the show was going to be

DJ and producer Tom Zanetti appeared on the show a few seasons ago when he was dating Sophie Hermann. After filming he said he didn’t realise how “set up” it was all going to be.

Speaking to The Only Way Is Essex’s Bobby Norris and co-host Stephen Leng on their Access All Areas radio show, he said: “I didn’t know what to expect. But I kind of thought it would be more like [the cameras] following you around and stuff like that. I didn’t realise it would be, you know, like settings, like set up in a way. In a way, yes, it is set up. They’ll set up an amazing setting and a backdrop and then you’re given a topic to discuss.

“That doesn’t discredit it at all. It was set up, but then you’ve got to film it so many times from so many different angles. And then, you get the wides, and then you get the pretties and then you get this and that.”

James Taylor said producers tell the cast members what to say

Current cast member James Taylor said in an interview with Closer Magazine that producers of Made in Chelsea “make you say things you don’t necessarily want to say”. He said there’s “a definite hierarchy” among cast members and “different rules” for older cast members compared to newbies.

Kimberley Garner claimed scenes being ‘completely different’ to real life was why she left the show

Kimberley Garner is another Made in Chelsea cast member who has made claims the show is staged. She said scenes were fabricated and created for the audience’s entertainment, rather than to represent real life scenarios, and this was why she left the cast.

“They definitely edit a lot – I was shocked when I watched it back,” she said in an interview. “They get you to say certain phrases, and suddenly create scenes that happened completely differently to reality. You’d watch it back thinking, ‘That didn’t even happen!’ and the storyline would be completely different. That was one of the reasons why I left.”

Extras who have worked with the Made in Chelsea cast have also said it was staged

It’s not just the main cast members who have had things to say about MIC, people who have been casted as extras have too. In an interview with Sabotage Times, an extra from Made in Chelsea claimed the show is “very much constructed”. She claimed she was told to dress in the style of the show and to pretend she was out shopping. She says she was placed a mile away from cameras to “allow the cast to perform”.

For all the latest reality TV news and gossip, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Ok, this moment proves Made in Chelsea is officially the most staged show of all time

• So, how much do the cast of Made in Chelsea actually get paid?

• ‘I’m a bit sick of it’: Miles Nazaire has spoken about leaving Made in Chelsea