Gogglebox duo Jenny Newby and Lee Riley may joke around like a married couple, but the loveable TV stars have been best friends for over 20 years.
Both are happily married off-screen and while Lee's husband Steve has made the odd guest appearance on the TV show or posed for a photo with the pair, Jenny's husband Ray is much more private.
Jenny did have a rare exchange with him that was caught on camera during one episode. She called her husband and asked: "Ray, can you do me a favour and pick up my prescription tomorrow?" before adding: "Hold on a minute!" It seems as though Ray may have been camera-shy as he swiftly ended their conversation. "Oh, it’s gone off!" she said.
© InstagramRay was offered the opportunity to join his wife on Gogglebox when she was approached by a researcher at Beverley Races Ladies' Day in 2014 but he decided not to take part. Instead, she convinced her long-term friend to become her on-screen partner.
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© InstagramLee previously told Hull Daily Mail: "I wasn’t [at Beverley Races] but she asked me if I wanted to sit and do a test filming with her. I’d never seen Gogglebox, it had only just started, so I walked into filming swearing my head off because she’d got me out of bed on my day off."
Jenny admitted she was always a big fan of Gogglebox and jumped at the opportunity to join the show back in 2014. "I was a big fan of it right from the beginning,” she said. “If my friends were going out, I’d say, ‘I can’t, I’ve got to stay in and watch Gogglebox’. I loved it. So to be on it is amazing. I’d never have thought it would happen in a million years."
© InstagramJenny has also failed to share any pictures of her husband on her joint Instagram account with Lee, which tends to feature throwback photos of the pair or behind-the-scenes snaps inside Lee's Hull caravan. In one unearthed picture of Jenny in a glamorous black dress holding flowers while Lee was in a suit, he joked: "Old photo 16years ago of me and Jenny on a cruise taking the piss and no before you ask we didn’t get married."
When she's not filming, Jenny resides in a home with Ray but she was forced to spend three months apart from him during the coronavirus pandemic.
© Channel 4At the time, Lee tweeted: "Thanks for watching everyone time for Jenny to see her husband after 3 months with me. Really going to miss her tho have a great summer everyone. SEE YOU ALL IN SEPTEMBER xx."
Lee added that their long-distance friendship doesn't change how close they are when they meet one another. "Even though we don’t see each other, which is really weird, because we all live up and down the country … it’s still like a family," he told The Guardian.
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