Photos : Take a look at Gemma Collins' evolution throughout the years
Gemma Collins is a reality TV star and businesswoman.
There aren't many photos of Gemma Collins as a child. She was born in East London, on 31 January 1981.
Her mum, Joan, was a hairdresser, and her dad, Alan, was an import-export company director. She's got an older brother named Russell.
From a young age, she became interested in the arts and started performing in school plays.
She was bullied for being ‘overly’ confident and outgoing so her parents transferred her to a private school.
She first appeared on British television in 2000. On ITV's documentary Snobs, Collins explained she felt she belonged to a different class than the one she was born in.
During the documentary, we see her visiting an agent who tells her that she ‘had charisma but was too fat to be on TV’.
She rose to fame when she participated in the second series of The Only Way is Essex in 2011.
Gemma Collins joined I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2014. She first refused to parachute into the jungle with her mates, and then withdrew from the competition after 72 hours, due to health reasons.
She joined Celebrity Big Brother in 2016, and was eliminated after spending 29 days in the house.
Still in 2016, she gave an interview to Kay Burley where she advocated for the phrase ‘Essex girl’ to be removed from the Oxford English Dictionary. She explained it was offensive, as they were as described as ‘unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic’. The phrase was removed in 2020.
In 2017, she became a viral meme after falling in an opening as she was presenting the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards. Former clips from her appearances in The Only Way is Essex and I'm A Celebrity resurfaced and strengthened her status.
In 2018, she participated in Celebs Go Dating, during which she walked out on one of her dates after he called her a ‘diva’ because she was late. She also ditched another date where the man wanted to take her to Paris, for which she was reprimanded.
Still in 2018, she published her second book entitled The GC: How to be a Diva in which she empowers women to be confident, through advice and self-help exercices. On Loose Women, she admitted to having used a ghostwriter.
Gemma Collins also showed her singing abilities in a celebrity special of All Together Now. She impressed the judges by performing This Is Me from The Greatest Showman.
That same year, she joined Dancing On Ice during which she had an on-screen argument with one of the judges who commented on her weight. Later on the show, she fell on her face and nearly broke her jaw. She also had a major knee injury.
In 2019, she launched her own reality TV show entitled Gemma Collins: Diva Forever, which became the most watched pilot on ITVBe. Production was later halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, Gemma Collins filmed Gemma Collins: Diva on Lockdown which showed her going through lockdown at home.
In 2020, she started hosting her own podcast, The Gemma Collins Podcast, on BBC Sounds.
In 2021, the diva appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories where she opened up about her childhood, relationships, several miscarriages, her weight and online trolling.
In 2022, Gemma Collins launched a Channel 4 documentary entitled Gemma Collins: Self-Harm & Me. She met with several mental health advisors to talk about her struggles with self-harm. The documentary was nominated for a National Television Award.
In 2012, Gemma Collins dated her personal trainer and fellow TOWIE cast member Charlie King. Their relationship did not work out, and Charlie came out as gay in 2014. The pair remains close friends.
Gemma Collins had an on-and-off relationship with Rami Hawash since 2011. They got engaged on Christmas Day in 2013, and broke up in 2014.
He told the Mirror Gemma's diva persona was the reason for their separation: ‘If I could have evicted The GC and lived with Gemma Collins, things would have been different’.
Gemma Collins and James Argent dated on-and-off for nine years. They started dating during TOWIE but famously dumped Arg as he fat-shamed her. She said: ‘Take a good look at this, you ain’t ever gonna get this candy. I might not be a size 10 but I’ve got a good heart, so take that and kiss that!’
After a rocky relationship, the GC kicked Arg out of her home in 2017 and he went on an online hate spree, calling her a ‘fat horrible lump’ and saying she had ‘more rolls than Greggs’.
She dated Stephen Mortimer in 2015-2016 before he was sent to prison for burglary for a year.
After spending a few years apart, the couple reunited during the Covid-19 pandemic. They got engaged once again in 2021, and have said they are putting their plans on hold while trying to get pregnant.
Today, Gemma Collins says she is thrilled to act as stepmum for her fiancé's four-year-old son, Tristian.
Gemma Collins is a strong supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights and she often appears on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
