Over the last decade, she’s transformed herself from Geordie Shore’s most notorious party girl to a mental-health advocate and a body-positivity champion.
Now Vicky Pattison is preparing for the next chapter in her life after revealing she plans to freeze her eggs this month to help her become a mother one day. In a candid chat with Closer, Vicky, 34, admits she was conflicted over the decision whether or not to undergo the £10k procedure, where eggs are extracted from the ovaries to save them for future use, with boyfriend of two years, Ercan Ramadan, 29.
“Some days I wake up and all I want to be is a mother,” she explains. “So, in freezing my eggs, I’m accepting I probably won’t have kids for a few years. In the past if I’ve got upset over it, Ercan has said, ‘We’ll have a baby if you want to.’ But that’s not what I want to hear – I want to hear, ‘I want to have kids with you.’
“I know Ercan is not ready to do that so I’m OK – he’s a lot younger than me, I don’t want to be the person who rushes someone else because my biological clock is ticking.”
Check out: Vicky Pattison's relationship history
CLOSER Vicky Pattison past lovers - SLIDER
1 of 18Vicky Pattison
A fresh-faced Vicky Pattison first tore onto our screens on MTV's Geordie Shore in 2011. Back then she was 23, was working in telesales. . . and fresh out of a relationship with local lad John Noble. With a mega-watt TV career on the horizon, which hunky lads would this 'VIP' set her sights on?
2 of 18Vicky Pattison
'Dad of the group' Jay – so dubbed for the semblance of sanity he was riddled with – made quite the match for balshy Vicky during their short lived romance in series one. But the love affair wasn't to last, as Jay announced he was leaving the show at the end of series three to focus on his relationship (not the one with Vick, FYI).
3 of 18Ricci Guarnaccio
Yet by the time of Jay's teary departure, Vicky had already shacked up with another Geordie Shore co-star. In fact, that very same episode saw Ricci Guarnaccio propose to her during dinner in Cancun. Sadly, early on in the next series Ricci asked for the ring back after Vicky got a naked spray tan (or something), and Vicky has since called him'spoiled', 'arrogant', and condemned their relationship as 'hell'. Sadface.
4 of 18Fit Dan
Another one from the Geordie Shore archive, Vicky met Fit Dan (AKA Dan Conn) while filming series 6 in Australia, and he really was very fit. A former pin up boy from Australia's NRL, Dan was working as a fitness guru in his native Sydney (go figure).
5 of 18Dan Conn
Sure, their initial romance was short-lived, but Vicky has called Dan 'the one that got away' and they've reuinited a number of times, most notably on 2014's Ex on the Beach, where Ricci was also an islander. In 2017 Dan met up with Vicky in Newcastle, and said he was "genuinely happy" she had found love with John.
6 of 18Kirk Norcross
Vick dated OG TOWIE boii Kirk Norcross in late 2013, first spotted together cosying up over a mulled vino at Winter Wonderland. Kirk was not long out of a relationship with alt model Cami Li, which set sparks flying when all three of them appeared on Ex on the Beach the following year. What was really awkward, though, was when Kirk confessed his love for Vick - who then went on to crack on with Stephen Bear hours later. She also said she'd "never loved him" in a 2015 column for New! magazine. Ouch.
7 of 18Gaz Beadle
Now, this one was the real shocker! Vicky and Gaz Beadle had been alpha-ing all over G Shore since season 1, but never did we ever expect them to hook up. But following a few too many Jaegers and a night in the hot tub, that's exactly what they found themselves doing. The following morning, Vicky called it an "all time personal low". We've all been there, pet.
8 of 18James Morgan
Maybe the horror of doing the Parsnip was too much for Vicky to bear, because it wasn't long following her and Gaz's traumatic hook up that she hung up her Geordie shoes to focus on her relationship. Who was the special lad? Former Ice hockey player James Morgan, who'd already done the reality TV rounds with TOWIE's Maria Fowler.
9 of 18James Morgan
"At our age we've all got an ex we'd rather forget. Frankly, she's an attention seeker," she told Daily Star at the time. " 'I've rushed that before and it didn't go well, so with James I just want to do everything right. What we have is so special and so right- we just want to enjoy every stage. I've never felt like this before. I think he's definitely the one." Shortly after quitting the show, Vick and James broke up, and he was later arrested and jailed for armed robbery. So not a nice guy, in the end. thank u, next.
10 of 18Stephen Bear
Oh, Bear. Bear, Bear, Bear. As lovable as he is (in a weird way), we're still gobsmacked that so many savvy sleb ladies give him the time of day, given his appalling track record with fidelity. They met on (quelle surprise) Ex on the Beach, and ever the gentleman, Bear was not coy describing their sex life on leaving the show. "Our sex life is f@!king sick. It's the best sex I've ever had. It's blinding, so explosive. We are really passionate about it and we are really madly in love," he said."I always tie her up and she f@!king loves it. I wear the trousers in the bedroom and she knows it." Charming.
11 of 18Stephen Bear
In a SHOCKING (not) turn of events, Bear proved to be unfaithful to our Vick, and then went on to date her former Geordie Shore co-star Charlotte Crosby. But Vicky isn't one to let bad behaviour slide, and said at the time: "He's literally been the most vile, horrendous, snaky, conniving and manipulative person I have ever met.""I'm truly shocked that I've allowed myself to get so taken in - but there you go. Love is blind, or in my case, blind, deaf, stupid."
12 of 18Alex Cannon
If it was up to us, these two would have lived happily ever after and sailed off into the sunset way back in 2015, when they first worked as co-stars on MTV spin off Judge Geordie. Vick described male model Alex Cannon as 'carved by angels'. The two were already close pals when he went into the Big Brother house in 2016.
13 of 18Alex Cannon
The two of them have always insisted that they're "just good friends" (booooo!) but she definitely gave some conflicted messages during an appearance on Loose Women in 2016. "I'm so in love with him, man. I don't know, I can't work it out… we said we'd marry each other when we're 30 and we definitely will at some point, but I'm so confused by my feelings for him," she said. She also revealed Alex had been an ongoing point of contention during her relationship with Bear, when the two of them were presenting together.
14 of 18Alex Bowen
With unrequited love for Alex Cannon swirling in the background, it's no wonder that following her split from Bear Vicky was after some casual romance. Over Christmas 2015 and New Year, she stepped out on home turf with another male model (and another Alex), Alex Bowen. The couple were reportedly introduced before Vicky headed out to Australia to film I'm A Celeb (which she then went on to win). The romance was not to last, and Alex is now married to Olivia Buckland who he met on the 2016 of Love Island.
15 of 18Mario Falcone
With her career seriously taken off thanks to her stint in the Jungle, 2016 was the year of the reality TV romance for Vicky. Having been running in the same circles for years, she began dating TOWIE's Mario Falcone, although kept it under wraps for weeks. She eventually spilled all after they'd split, saying on Loose Women, "Mario was very sweet, I suppose a bit more like the girl in the relationship, he would text and say 'Oh I miss you, you're really busy'. ""And I suppose I had to concede 'yes I am, I'm sorry.'
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16 of 18Spencer Matthews
They met briefly in the jungle before Spencer was kicked out for a drug addiction, but Vicky had already caught feelings. "I only spent a couple of days with him, but we couldn't stop smiling at each other. Would I have done a bit with Spencer? Probably," she wrote in her autobiography. However, they DID in fact end up going on a date after he sent her "100 red roses", They reportedly didn't work out because Spence was too posh and didn't understand her accent (?!), but they remain close friends. Awh.
17 of 18John Noble
Vick and John rekindled their romance in 2016, with John proposing in 2017 and plans to marry earlier this year. However, the plans fell through after Vicky admitted neither of them were in the right place, and their relationship was destroyed following the string of cheating allegations that plagued John's lads holiday in Dubai this autumn.
18 of 18Ercan Ramadan
Just months after her engagement crashed and burned, Vicky went public with one-time TOWIE star Ercan Ramadan, who she met through mutual friends and spent the New Year with. The cute couple split briefly earlier this year over fears they were moving too fast, but have since reconciled and look happier than ever.
Vicky adds, “I see egg freezing as an empowering move – even if next year we decide to unfreeze or try naturally – this is a responsible move and one I can’t put off any longer. I’m 34, I don’t want the decisions I make now to be the cause for my unhappiness later down the line.”
Vicky has also revealed doctors found a “4cm cyst” on her left ovary which has been the cause of her “incredibly painful” periods, even causing her to “pass out” on occasion, but she is trying her best to stay positive. She says, “The doctors are going to monitor it for a while to see if it will shrink itself. I can get very down on my periods, but doughnuts, strong painkillers and lots of cuddles from Ercan and our dog Milo definitely help!”
The star has been open about her well documented battles with her weight, self-medicating with alcohol and suffering with depression. But after years of therapy, Vicky admits she has never been happier despite her roller-coaster decade. In her new self-help book The Secret To Happy, Vicky reveals how she has navigated the incredible highs and devastating lows in her life to become stronger, wiser and more powerful. “I’m still a work in progress and growing every day,” she says. “The book is like a bad girl’s bible. If you think you’ve made mistakes – wait until you have read mine!”
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Vicky Pattison reveals why she and boyfriend Ercan Ram are 'sleeping in different bedrooms'
The star, who gained notoriety for her boozy antics and having sex on TV in Geordie Shore, admits she “agonised” over whether to revisit her past. “There were very dark times and I paid the price,” she says. “I never want to go back to that place – I made it my mission to learn from my mistakes and change.”
The star has famously yoyoed over the years between a size 6 and a 16, and believes she’s now found balance. “I’m finally in a good place with my body,” says Vicky, who keeps her curves in shape with a varied diet and workouts. “I’ve been through every extreme you could think of. I wish my journey to self-love was much more straightforward, but it’s really hard for women to wake up in the morning and love what they see. Being thin and being obsessed with scales made me miserable. Being unhealthy, drinking every night and being bigger than I wanted to be didn’t make me happy either.”
She adds, “What makes me happy is balance. It’s accepting my boobs and bum and rolls and allowing myself nights in front of the telly with Doritos and lovely long walks with my mum.”
Vicky is honest about her mental health too, and says in the past she would “ignore” signs she was “heading for a breakdown” after pushing herself to exhaustion work-wise. While it’s taken her a “long time to slow down”, she still needs to be careful not to fall into old habits. She explains, “I’m an addictive person and as history has shown, I can be quite obsessive. I want to work every hour God sends, I want to be the last person standing when I’m out, but I have to try to work hard not to slip back. If I catch myself burning the candle at both ends I can now read the signs. I start to snap at people I care about and make mistakes. I take a step back and slow down. I’ve learned a lot about the need to practise self-care.”
The star recently revealed she would down “10 drinks a day” after feeling lonely following being crowned queen of I’m A Celebrity! back in 2015, and says cutting back on boozy nights out has helped her find peace. She says, “Naturally, as you get older how you drink changes. I have to be aware I have those addictive qualities within me – its scares me at times so I have to control my environment – where I go, who I drink with. I’ve got a great support structure and a good set of friends now.”
In 2018, Vicky hit rock bottom following the death of her best friend, Paul Burns, and the breakdown of her engagement to childhood sweetheart John Noble. But she says personal trainer Ercan is The One and has helped her restore her faith in love. She says, “If I’d met Ercan 10 years ago that would not have worked. I didn’t love myself enough and I would never have thought I was good enough for him. I would have been the toxic one in the relationship. But he came along just at the right time when I was in a much better place and that is why it works. You have to accept life’s blessings when they come and he has really added to my happiness.”
With a new TV show (she’s sworn to secrecy over it) in the pipeline, new book and a renewed outlook on life – Vicky admits she’s never been so content. “I’m a work in progress and in no way perfect,’ she says. “But life is better than ever.”
WATCH: Reacting to the best Geordie Shore moments with OGs Gaz Beadle and Holly Hagan
Vicky Pattison's view on...
Resolutions... “I really want to do more TV work – I admire Stacey Dooley so much and would absolutely love to do documentary-style programmes.”
Her mum... “One of the best things to come out of leaving Geordie Shore was to get back my relationship with my mum, Caroll. It had totally broken down but we worked things out and now there are no secrets between us.”
Writing her new book... “It was therapeutic at times but also very difficult. I assumed I’d processed all the traumas from my twenties and done a great job with my life coach and therapists, but when you revisit it all like I did with this book, you realise there are still some wounds that run so deep. There was a lot of crying and reflection that went on.”