Love Island's Shakira hints at family rift over 'trust issues' with Harry
Shakira Khan has revealed why her mum hasn't met Harry Cooksley yet. The reality star, 24, met and coupled up with Love Island co-star Harry, 30, on the latest series of the ITV2 dating show.
In the end, it was Toni Laites and Cach Mercer who walked off with the £50,000 prize, but for Shakira and Harry, love came after weeks of uncertainty as they were involved in a love triangle with Helena Ford. Ramping up the drama, Harry's ex-girlfriend from the outside world, Emma Munro was also thrown into the mix. On Thursday, Shakira and Toni, now best friends, made a joint appearance on Loose Women together to discuss their rise to fame.
Former EastEnders actress Nadia Sawalha, who appeared alongside Denise Welch, Frankie Bridge, and anchor Kaye Adams, asked the new TV star how she was managing any 'trust issues' they might have following the ups and downs that played out on screen. Shakira replied: "It was important for us to build back at our own pace, everyone's been together from the start. Everyone's like 'Are you boyfriend and girlfriend, are you exclusive?'"
Former Coronation Street star Denise, 67, quickly cut in to ask Shakira if she and Harry had met each other's families yet, and she replied: "Not yet. Well, my mum's been cruising round the Mediterranean, and I've not even home to see my dad. I've not seen my dad in about 10 weeks!"
Just then, the Loose Women panel invited Harry into the conversation, who was sitting in the audience, and he spoke of his behaviour throughout his time in the villa. He said: "I like to think I'm living up to what she wants now. I just want to be that person, I am, but I wanted to make the most of my time in the villa and not sit there for eight weeks."
And in response, Shakira quipped: "I've always told him that he's not a bad person, he just does silly things!"
During his time in the villa, viewers watched as Harry sat back as Helena and Shakira took the triangle drama out on each other. Just days after the final, he has admitted that he hasn't actually spoken to Helena but gave a positive update on the status of their relationship now that the show is over.
He told Christine Lampard on last Friday's edition of Lorraine: "I think I definitely handled things in the wrong way with Helena and Shakira. But at the end of the day, Helena and I are now moving forward as friends. I haven't actually spoken to her since I've been out but we had a couple of conversations before she left the villa and I'm delighted it's amicable." It comes after reports of all the celebrities rumoured to be joining BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2025.
Christine then quizzed Shakira on how she felt during the whole situation, and she said: "Honestly it was heartbreaking and having to watch it pan out every day was so tough. I think in the outside world you can have a bit of distance, you can speak to each other. It was something I'd never experienced before."
Elsewhere in the series, Harry had to deal with his ex-girlfriend Emma Munro arriving as a Bombshell during the Casa Amor portion of the competition and joked that he and the other boys had been hitting the gym every day in an attempt to impress the girls before all the drama unfolded.
He added: "I think I was buzzing, all the boys were so buzzing. We were calling it the Promised Land, we were gymming every day. We were training like it was the World Cup final and then the girls would come out, Emma was sat there and I just put my head in my hands. I hadn't seen her for months, probably since last year so it was such a surreal feeling."
But in the end, Harry ended up with Shakira and even though they were beaten to the £50,000 prize by Cach and Toni, he knew that Shakira was the one for him in the villa.
He explained: "I think it was just one conversation that we had. I would make comments towards her and me actually had a chat one-on-one for the first time in weeks and it was just natural, we expressed how we felt. I'd buried a lot of emotion while I was in there and it just kind of came out."
Shakira was initially coupled up with Harry in the early weeks of the competition, but they got together again just days ahead of the final and he told her: "I came in here and thought it would be a lot of fun. Finding you in a villa in Mallorca was not on my bingo card this summer. I do regret taking too long to tell you how I felt. We both know this is more than surface level - I think it always has been for me."
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Michelle Collins makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut with a play about a Marilyn Monroe lookalike in Motorhome Marilyn. | Lucy Hayes The EastEnders actor has made a career out of stepping out of her comfort zone Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... EastEnders actor Michelle Collins is fulfilling the ambition of a lifetime by making her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with her one-woman show Motorhome Marilyn. A dark comedy, the play was inspired by a real life Marilyn Monroe lookalike Collins saw emerging from a trailer years ago in LA and explores our relationships with icons, ageing and what happens when dreams don't come true. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I'm terrified. But I've always wanted to do the Edinburgh Fringe. It's always been on my bucket list,' she says, when we talk ahead of her run. 'Being live on stage terrifies me but I still love it. I don't trust an actor who says they don't get scared on stage. Judi Dench still gets scared on stage. Doesn't everybody? I think all the good actors should get scared because it's good to be scared. And also I've never done a one-woman show. So there's only me up there. Oh, with a pet python.' A real python? Collins won't be drawn and is keen to avoid spoilers but promises unexpected twists and turns in the play written by Ben Weatherill (whose Frank and Percy starred Ian McKellen and Roger Allam and sold out across the UK and in London) after Stewart Permutt, and directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones. Michelle Collins as Denise in Motorhome Marilyn, her one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe | Lucy Hayes Surprises are nothing new for Collins who is back stalking Albert Square in killer heels as Cindy in EastEnders after a gap of 25 years, returning in 2023. In the meantime the 63-year-old has four decades of stage and screen credits ranging from TV roles in Coronation Street, Doctor Who, Miss Marple, Two Thousand Acres of Sky, and The Illustrated Mum, for which she won an international Emmy and Bear Grylls Mission Survive, while she's appeared in numerous plays and musicals including Daddy Cool, Calendar Girls, Cleudo, Thoroughly Modern Millie and A Dark Night in Dalston, which she also produced. Films include Black Road and last year's Gangster's Kiss, 2024, with John Hannah, Martin Kemp and Patsy Kensit. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Collins recounts how the inspiration for the play which she originally collaborated on with her late friend, the playwright Stewart Permutt, came about after she saw a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe emerge from a motorhome in LA a few years ago. 'I was walking around Hollywood and saw this woman dressed as Marilyn in that iconic white dress. She had the wig on and was putting money in a meter and visually, it just looked fantastic. She had long red nails and put the money in the metre then sashayed away very elegantly. She exchanged hellos with this guy and walked off. Then she turned around and I saw that she was an older Marilyn, more like 56. So I walked up to the guy and asked who she was. He said, 'oh, that's Motorhome Marilyn. She lives in that trailer and walks up and down and that's how she earns her money'. I was really intrigued. I later went looking for her but never found her or found out who she was. I just became intrigued with the idea and that image always stayed with me.' Discussing the idea with Stewart Permutt, whose play 'Real Babies Don't Cry' won a Fringe First in 2010 and who also wrote the play she produced and performed in, A Dark Night in Dalston, the idea became a script. However Permutt's death meant it was not developed beyond early drafts. Michelle Collins as Denise in Motorhome Marilyn, her one-woman play at the Edinburgh Fringe. | Lucy Hayes 'Stewart was very ill and couldn't write it, then passed away just over a year ago, but he had left me the play and given me permission to let someone else write it so Ben [Weatherill] wrote another version and made it his own. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Collins is at pains to point out that the show is more about Denise, the Marilyn Monroe lookalike, than the iconic American actor. 'I don't want people to think they're going to see another Marilyn impersonation, because it's really not, it's kind of more than that. Yes, Denise has the wig and the white dress, but you will see more about her, an aspiring actress from Southend who goes to Hollywood to escape her life and it doesn't work out for her so to make ends meet becomes a Marilyn lookalike. And sadly, she's still a Marilyn lookalike in her mid to late 50s. Denise feels she's more than a lookalike, that she actually embodies her because there are parallels to their lives and struggles. I would say Denise is a bit kooky, a bit out there. She's fun, but also sad. She's living a life through an icon, who died at 33.' How about Collins, is she also fascinated by Marilyn Monroe? 'I read lots of books a few years back when Stewart and I were first working on the play so I probably could go on Mastermind and talk about Marilyn Monroe as my specialist subject. People dismissed her as being this blonde bombshell but she had more to her than meets the eye. She was a strong woman before her time and cleverer than people gave credit. She started her own production company when people weren't doing that and took the studios to court and won. She was involved a lot in politics with a small p: she was with Arthur Miller through the McCarthy era and did a lot for civil rights. When the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood wouldn't book Ella Fitzgerald because of her race, Marilyn refused to sing until they did and they became friends.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'So she was a very strong empowered woman and I think undersold. And I think Denise feels that about herself. And also for me, as an actor, I feel like I'm taking charge of my career by doing this.' But Collins has had a long and successful career and is on primetime TV in one of the nation's favourite soaps. Michelle Collins is back as Cindy Beale in EastEnders. | Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron/BBC 'Yes, I am on TV now and a lot more visible than I was. But as a woman, as an actress, as you get older, it kind of changes. When I was in my 30s and 40s, I had big lead roles on television, and I'm not grumbling but it kind of diminishes a bit. And I think you have to fight a bit more as a woman for those roles. So I decided I was going to take a bit more charge of my career, particularly in theatre. Yes, I was doing a lot of commercial jobs to pay the bills and everything, but I wanted something a bit more creative for me. I wanted to create those roles for myself. A lot of actors are doing that. I also made a film, which did very well at festivals. I created that, again for myself.' The film is Black Road, which she made with Genesius Pictures and Debbie Gray, who made Good Luck to You, Leo Grande with Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'And then I did a lot of independent film, which I love doing, over the last few years. While Collins was busy creating and collaborating, EastEnders came calling once more, with the return of Cindy after 25 years. 'EastEnders came out of the blue. It was a bit of a shock. And I had to keep it under wraps for a whole year, but it still didn't stop me doing my own stuff. People say, 'how do you do all this, but as I've got older, maybe it's facing my own mortality, I don't know, but I seem to have more energy. I don't know if it's my HRT. I do have an amazing kind of zest for life. I asked EastEnders if it would be possible to have time off to do this play because it's something I really feel strongly about and really want to do and they said yes. I think it's important to let people go and do other things, because when you come back you feel re-energized. Just because you're in a soap you're labeled a soap actor, but we're still all jobbing actors. And for me it's really important to go off and do other things.' 'But I love being in EastEnders. I've been very lucky since I've come back and had great storylines.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marilyn Monroe is definitely an icon, but does Cindy qualify as another? 'So I'm told,' says Collins. She's been through a lot. She was imprisoned, was in with a gangster, had witness protection, had a baby that was taken away, was in prison… Died in childbirth… 'Yeah, and so she goes abroad, meets a man, falls in love, gets married, has two more children, then finds out two of her kids have died, tries to get away then is told she can't go back to Spain… I mean, honestly, it confuses ME. When they told me the backstory, I was like, blimey 25 years of this, how is this woman coping? 'I think she's a complex character and I love playing her. I like her because she's unapologetic. And she's got balls. She's strong, vulnerable, dysfunctional, but passionate. And she's all these things that women really shouldn't be. She's a bit crazy and I know people sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed watching, thinking what's she doing now? But I think they also love to see what she's up to. Everywhere she goes she creates drama and she's just so visible and I love that.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think it's fantastic that older women are represented on screen. Also, why can't older women have affairs? Ok, I'm not condoning it, she did have an affair with her husband's stepson, which probably isn't a cool thing to do if you want to be accepted back into the family. But, you know what? Why not? Women of 60 can go and have affairs and I think people also want to see that on TV and I think that's really important. 'Soaps have always been really great in championing women, matriarchal figures and older women as well.' Michelle Collins plays Denise, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike in Motorhome Marilyn. | Lucy Hayes If Collins' career hadn't worked out the way it has, could she ever have seen herself going down the lookalike route? 'Oh God, I think I can. I remember getting a Kylie look alike for my daughter's birthday party. Yeah. There are people who have made careers out of doing something like that. But when I think of all the jobs I did when I was very, very young, it never really occurred to me to ever be a lookalike. Let's face it, anyone could be a Marilyn lookalike. Just get the blonde wig and iconic dress. Denise, my character says, 'Anybody can get the outfit on Amazon, but I'm different'. She feels she actually embodies Marilyn.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'You know, I did go to America when I was 17 with a boyfriend who became a very successful production designer in the film world, and we stayed in Venice Beach and I had the most brilliant time and people said to me, 'stay here and be an actress in America.' And I was tempted, and I do think what would have happened if I'd stayed? But I hadn't finished college here and came back. Sometimes I think what if? I didn't get into drama school but I've worked a lot. Life for me is about successes that come out of failures. I think having to struggle makes you a better person and a stronger person.' 'There are still a lot of things I haven't done and I'm still ticking these boxes. As an actor, as a woman, even more so now, you've got to have a lot of strings to your bow. Because it's very hard, particularly if you're from a working class background,' says the actor who was raised in north London along with her sister Vicki by a single mother who went back into education when Collins was 14 and got a degree. 'So it's important to create things for yourself and be in charge of your career.' After the Fringe, Collins will be back with a bang on EastEnders, but what else is on her bucket list of things she'd love to achieve? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I suppose I've never been asked to work at the National, the Donmar warehouse, the RSC. I've never been asked on Desert Island discs. I'm desperate to do that. There's lots of things. I don't know. I still feel I maybe have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about certain things but that's fine, I'm not angry about it. The other side of it is I feel very lucky and think I'm very privileged to be a woman of a certain age, still working, still doing something I really love. I'm proud I was pretty much a single parent and managed to have a career at the same time and be a creative. Sometimes you have to take jobs you don't really want to do but they're money jobs and then there are the other jobs, the creative jobs, like the Illustrated Mum, which I loved doing, I went to New York to get the international Emmy, and it won the three BAFTAs. So I've had a very varied career. But I'm not one of these people that pats myself on the shoulder. I don't like that. I'm confident but I'm insecure at the same time. I suffer from imposter syndrome like a lot of people but I keep on kicking away and trying to do new things and reinvent myself. And do things out of my comfort zone which is what I'm doing at the Edinburgh Fringe.' Michelle Collins in Motorhome Marilyn. | Lucy Hayes 'You have to be brave. I think to myself what could be worse? I could be doing Bear Grylls again. I'm not at the top of a mountain having to abseil down. That was really terrifying.' 'So who knows what the future holds? You can never be complacent or take anything for granted. I've learned that in life. And I want to enjoy every minute and every day because I've lost so many people over the last few years, my mum, good friends, and sadness and grief creep up on you but also give you strength to move forward and be strong. It's also given me a sense of freedom to go and do my own thing. 'I hope Motorhome Marilyn goes well and people love it. But you know what? It's something I've done, and I needed to do for myself and for Stewart. And to prove that I can.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Daily Record
4 hours ago
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Katie Price breaks silence on Peter Andre 'lies' row as she makes stunning admission
Katie Price has shared her own statement as she hit back at her ex husband Peter Andre following his bombshell claims about their family. Katie Price has responded to the explosive allegations made by her ex-husband Peter Andre. The 47 year old former glamour model, who shares two children with Peter - Junior, 20, and Princess, 18 - split from him in 2009, and all communication between them ceased as they navigated co-parenting. This week, tensions escalated between the former couple following a series of claims coinciding with the launch of Princess's own ITV2 series. Peter accused Katie and her family of "repeated lies", claiming he had chosen to remain silent for 16 years. This comes after their daughter Princess declared her independence from her parents, breaking her silence following a row with Katie. Now, Katie has issued her own rebuttal via Instagram, stating: "Saints and Sinners. As we know, in this life we are thought of as Saints and Sinners, reports the Mirror. "I know I will always be seen as a Sinner. That's fair, I allowed myself to fall into a reliance on drugs and alcohol. At times, I was not the mother I should have been while I struggled with mental illness. "I have been at times a poor friend, an awful sibling, and an untrustworthy partner. I've self-medicated, been unfaithful, damaged myself and those that I love." Katie continued: "I've had my reasons - I was sexually abused when younger; had relationships that have been coercive; and my mental health issues - but I don't want to make excuses. I've recognised my issues and worked to put them behind me. "Sometimes I tried and failed, sometimes I succeeded. I've pulled myself out of a suicidal spiral because I love my children and want to be there for them. I don't pretend to be perfect by any means - but I'm trying to be the best I can." She went on: "Then there are the 'Saints'. Some are genuine and some have helped me. But some Saints are not who they would have you believe they are. They have a carefully managed image which must be exhausting to maintain. "Some Saints are fake. They play the victim and to succeed in life they need a at least a Sinner. Without the Sinner they don't get to be the Saint. "As a Sinner - I sometimes get bored of these Saints. But maybe I should feel sorry for them, It must be such hard work having to pretend all the time. Anyway, all you Sinners keep your heads up and keep trying to be better. All you Saints, it's ok not to be perfect." Yesterday, Peter released his own statement as he fumed: "For sixteen years, I have stayed silent in the face of repeated lies from my ex-wife and her family, out of respect for my children and loved ones, but staying silent has been incredibly frustrating. That ends today. "The latest comments about my children's welfare and living arrangements compel me to set the record straight. For well-documented reasons, and for their safety, Junior and Princess came into my care in 2018 and remained with me until they reached adulthood. "In 2019, the family courts issued a legally binding order to enforce this arrangement. "I have never made this public before, out of respect for my children. In 2011 and 2015, publicly documented court cases found my ex-wife had made false claims. "She was ordered to pay substantial damages and legal costs, and to apologise to me and my management. The same falsehoods are being repeated today. "Unfortunately, there are many more lies and baseless accusations I have yet to address. Those will now be dealt with in the coming months." Following Peter's revelations, a spokesperson for Katie told the Mirror: "Kate is in a much better and clear headspace and is at peace with the situation, this was in the past and she doesn't feel the need to bring up tit for tat comments, but more importantly she's dealing with this the right way and it's now in her lawyers hands. Kate will no longer be gaslight and bullied as she once was.." Princess also broke her silence for the first time, responding to a question about her parents on Snapchat. A fan asked her on the platform: "Does it affect you even now when your mum and dad don't get on?'". In response, Princess said in a video on the platform: "To be honest, it doesn't affect me. At the end of the day, they broke up when I was two years old so I don't even have any memory of them being together." She added a note on top of the clip, stating: "I love my mum and dad and that's all that matters xxx."
