Made in Chelsea fave Jamie Laing discovered the downsides of reality television (Picture: Getty)
Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing decided to quit the reality TV hit after tasting the bitter side of fame.
The fan favourite made his debut in the E4 series, following a group of affluent West Londoners, in 2011, before exiting almost a decade later.
‘I thought, “Oh my God, if everyone loves me, because I’m some, sort of, famous [person], all of my wanting and need to be loved will be over,”’ he explained.
‘Actually, what happens is, you become famous, and it doesn’t do anything, it makes it worse, because your true friends think you’re a nob, and the people you don’t even know kind of like you, but you don’t even know them.’
Jamie – the great-great-grandson of Sir Alexander Grant, who created the McVitie’s biscuit empire – said the line between real life and manufactured drama became blurred, too.
‘It’s a food chain, so the more drama you’re causing, then the more storyline you’re getting, and the more airtime you’re getting,’ he continued.
‘I would go into a scene for the very first time, and I would be really funny, or be really loud, or be something, and then I would watch it back and I’d go on Twitter, social media, and someone would go, “Oh my God, that guy Jamie is really funny,” so in my head, I go, “Well, I’ve got to be funny.”’
Jamie Lang struggled to keep up the act of his TV persona (Picture: David M. Benett/Getty)
He added: ‘I’d become this character, who had to be super-loud and energetic all the time, and if I didn’t then [I thought] no one was gonna like me.’
Speaking on his friend and former MIC alum Spencer Matthews’ podcast Big Fish, Jamie, 34, touched on how the abandonment issues he experienced as a kid fed his desire to be liked.
‘I still have it now that people are always going to leave. It doesn’t matter if it’s friends or loved ones,’ he shared.
‘So, putting yourself in a show where you’re valued on how funny you are, or entertaining, or loud, or whatever things you are, you then have all of that mixed in with the fact that you’re trying to find out yourself.
‘I became this heightened persona of myself that’s unsustainable. And no wonder you then start feeling anxious and you have OCD, and you freak out about your career.’
Jamie Laing announced his engagement to fellow Made in Chelsea star Sophie Habboo in December 2021 (Picture: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty)
Not that Jamie – engaged to Sophie Habboo, who also appeared on the show – regrets his small screen outing.
‘I’m so glad we [Spencer and I] did it, we wouldn’t probably be doing this right now if it wasn’t for Made in Chelsea. But it nailed my soul for a long time, so I have mixed emotions about it,’ he pondered.
The pair also revisited their ‘love triangle’ with Louise Thompson – in one of the early series, Spencer got back with ex Louise whilst she was dating Jamie.
‘I saw it as an opportunity to be like, “Okay, fine, this is going to be a great kind of story for me to do, whatever.” Anyway, I went down this road of like, really caring about the fact that you had hooked up with her, and half of me did a little, but also at the same time, we’re on a TV show,’ he recalled.
Jamie runs his own confectionary collection, Candy Kittens, and also purr-fected his moves as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2020.
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