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1. Katie Price inspired him to change his name

Rylan’s name isn’t actually Rylan. It’s Ross. He tells Louis that he decided to assume a ‘stage name’ after meeting Katie Price, aka Jordan, when he was a contestant on the modelling show Signed by Katie Price. “I did actually get very close with Katie,” he says. “Spending time with her, I liked the fact that there was Katie and Jordan. I thought in my head that if [fame] ever happened to me, that’s how I would handle it.” He says the only people who call him Ross are his mum and husband, although his husband calls him Rylan, “when we’re having a row, because he knows it winds me up.”

2. Louis may have been involved in his sexual awakening

Rylan remembers that the first time he thought about men sexually was when he saw an episode of Louis Theroux: Life on the Edge, in which Louis explored the world of gay porn. “I remember putting it on with the volume down, then turning it off because I was scared my mum was going to walk in,” he says. Louis is, as you can imagine, thrilled at his part in Rylan’s formative years. “Louis Theroux made me gay. There’s your headline.”

3. He knew he was playing a role on X Factor

Rylan started his career as something of a national joke. As a contestant on The X Factor, in 2012, he was a novelty act – once described as “talentless” by Gary Barlow – and says he came to understand why he was there. “My job wasn’t to stand there and sing and be a pop star,” he says. “My job was to be on the front page of the paper every single morning… I didn’t know that at first. I wasn’t in on the joke, if you like. There was a moment when it clicked and that’s when I felt fine.” He says his ambition was to earn, “a couple of grand so I could buy myself a new car,” so he played the game and, “I did my job very, very well.” He eventually placed fifth.

4. He was paid £100,000 to appear on Celebrity Big Brother

I hate people knowing who I am, which is the one thing I actually wanted as a child.

Rylan Clark-Neal

The moment that turned Rylan’s career around and set him on the path to becoming a national treasure was when he won Celebrity Big Brother in 2013. He says he initially did it for the money. “I got £100,000 to be in Big Brother, so, to me, I’d won the lottery,” he says. “That’s quite a lot isn’t it? I think that’s the first time I’ve ever told anyone how much I got.”

5. He struggled a bit after Big Brother

During a discussion about the mental health toll of reality TV, Rylan says he’s lucky that he didn’t have any significant struggles, but says he had one very difficult moment. “The night I won Big Brother, I was taken straight in a car to Manchester at 4am to open the X Factor tour in front of 20,000 people. I’d gone from a house with eight people to… 20,000 people screaming at me. I had to perform for a month in arenas across the UK.” He says that when the tour ended, he went back to stay with his mum. “She went out to get some milk… and for the first time in eight months I was in a room on my own… I panicked. I did not sleep that night and didn’t want to get out of bed… I had about three days of staring at the wall.” A few days later, he was asked to screen test to present Big Brother’s Bit on The Side. “If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know how I’d be.”

6. He doesn’t like interviews

For someone so friendly and outgoing, Rylan surprises Louis by saying, “I hate doing interviews.” He says he has a very good relationship with the media and that, “whenever journalists get on the phone to me, they enjoy it, because they know I’m going to give them the content they need for the year.” The part he hates is that his quotes will get turned into headline news, which his mum then reads and believes. “I might say, ‘One day I might have kids’ and then boom! Exclusive! ‘He’s having a baby’. Then I get my mum on the phone, who’s so gullible, going ‘Are you having a baby? What’s happening?’ If I was having a baby, Mum, you wouldn’t read it in The Daily Star.”

7. He never had a relationship with his dad

Rylan says he doesn’t know the full story of his parents’ relationship, but suspects, “he had another family that didn’t know about me.” He says his dad was around a bit when he was very young, but then disappeared, until a chance meeting on Hornchurch High Street when Rylan was 14. “I saw this man in the distance, walking toward us, and I said, ‘Mum, I think that’s Daddy’. He was like, ‘My boy, my boy, my boy’ and holding my face… We spoke for about 30 seconds.” That was the last time he saw him. His father died last year.

8. His first crushes were Julia and Nadia Sawalha

Rylan says he didn’t really grow up knowing he was gay, because, “I didn’t even know what gay was. I knew I was different. I never thought about being with a boy or that I was going to be with a man when I was older, but I never really thought about having a wife.” Pushed by Louis to talk about his earliest attractions, he surprisingly says that his first crushes were the actors Julia and Nadia Sawalha. “I remember vividly, I had a newspaper and I think Julia Sawalha had done a shoot for The Sun in a gym and I had a crush on her. I have actually told her that, because I did the Ab Fab film.” (Julia Sawalha was Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous).

9. He wishes he wasn’t so well known

Rylan says he’s not particularly fond of being famous now. “I hate people knowing who I am, which is the one thing I actually wanted as a child.” He says being famous has caused him some issues, which he says are entirely down to his perception. “I feel like there are certain things I can’t do. I can’t remember the last time I went to a shop. I can’t remember the last time I did anything really normal.” He says he prefers to stay at home, because he’s worried that in public someone will, “do something or say something that will upset my husband or family.” He’s also worried about people taking photos that can be manipulated for negative press stories. “My head just makes up these scenarios and it panics me.”

10. Insults from the public don’t really bother him

Though he’s now a very popular TV and radio presenter, Rylan says he still gets some abuse from the public. He doesn’t let it bother him. “To be perfectly honest, a sick part of me enjoys it,” he says. “I’ve got a good career, nice house, good looking husband who treats me well, nice family.”

**This podcast was recorded and first published prior to Rylan’s divorce in 2021.**