His relationship with Love Island alumni Zara McDermott has delighted fans, with the playful pair lovingly pranking each other and posting funny videos.
And now, Sam Thompson – who has been with Zara for three years after meeting on Instagram – says that he sees himself heading down the aisle with her, but she’s stalling it.
He tells Closer, “I get loads of questions about a ring on her finger. It’s not actually me – it’s her! She’s like, ‘I’m not ready – I’m working on this, I’m doing that.’ And she’s so right. We both know we want to be with each other. I know she’s going to say yes, well she says she’s going to say yes when I ask! She’s super busy with loads of amazing stuff, she’s killing it right now. I’m obviously really busy as well.”
Sam, 30, rose to fame on Made In Chelsea in 2013, with his sister Louise, 32, already starring on the show for five series. The siblings share a close bond and Sam has been a big support through Louise’s trauma. Last December, she revealed she almost died twice giving birth to her son Leo, who she shares with fiancé Ryan Libbey. While Leo quickly recovered after being rushed to newborn intensive care, Louise had to stay in hospital for a month with “various serious complications”.
And now, Sam says the whole ordeal has made him think differently about life and his sister.
“Last year was really tough. There was a very real possibility that Louise wasn’t going to be here this time last year. It’s made me value my relationships and my family even more,” he admits. “It makes me feel really lucky to have such a strong relationship with my sister and you have to enjoy every moment of it. If you’re lucky in health, nothing else really matters. It makes you realise how unimportant other things are. It’s definitely been a massive year of learning, emotionally.”
Sam stepped back from Made In Chelsea in 2019 and has gone on to do voiceovers (for Ekin-Su & Davide: Homecomings) and other reality shows such as The Celebrity Circle. But his favourite job is running a podcast, Staying Relevant, with his best pal Pete Wicks, who he met on Celebs Go Dating in 2018. Together, they entertain fans with funny jokes and skits.
And now Sam says of their bond, “Working with Pete is like working with your best mate. We’ve been in this industry for eight years. And we’ve done the most embarrassing things to stay relevant in our careers that are just so funny to us, so we were like, ‘Why have we not created a sitcom [the podcast was initially meant to be a TV show] out of it?’ There is so much comedy in there, and a lot of it stems from real life. Pete doesn’t care about any of this, he wants to be a hermit in the woods. I want to be James Corden!”
And in the new year, Sam says there will be things he’ll try to do, but with a lot of failure involved.
He laughs, “I’ll do yoga for two weeks and then never do it again. I’ll try to go for a run for a couple of weeks – never do it again. I’ll try to read more books. I’ll manage to get halfway through one and then never do that again. When it comes to work, we’ve got loads of really exciting things on the horizon. The new year is going to be a big one.”