What an exciting time to be a Real Housewives of Cheshire fan. Lauren Simon is on Celebrity Big Brother, Ampika Pickston and Tanya Bardsley are back in the fold, production is close to wrapping series 17, and the cast are even bagging their own floats in Pride parades these days. Queen behaviour all round in summary.
But if you're a true RHOCheshire fan then you'll know this delicious Cheshire broth is missing one key ingredient as of late – Ester Dee.
The ever-enthusiastic Housewife – who joined the show in 2016, left in 2020 and then returned as a guest Housewife for the Christmas Cruising special in 2022 – has been notably absent from series 17 filming, despite her fellow guest Housewives Ampika and Tanya (all three made a spectacular return for the Pride special last summer) being heavily involved in the latest season.
As a Real Housewives of Cheshire super fan, you naturally start piecing these pieces together and all signs have been pointing to that dreaded word in reality telly land – axing. But surely not Ester Dee? The woman is a human firework of energy and glamour. Also to bring back Ampika and Tanya, and not Ester? The savagery. The audacity...
Sadly, ITV has predictably made zero comment on the matter and left us to our own assumptions, but thankfully, our Ester revealed all in the comments on none other than Ampika's series 17 announcement snap on Instagram. Not Ester bringing the drama to other Housewives' Instagram grids while she's not on the show – see, icon behaviour.
A few weeks ago, Ampika shared a snap of herself, Lauren and Seema Malhotra looking EXPENSIVE AF with the caption, "Guess who’s back in town 👀👀👀…….. with the beautiful @seemaforeverunique and @lauren_simon_835 . It’s good to be back 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥 @officialrhoch 🫶🏻❤️🫶🏻."
Naturally, the comments popped off with congratulations and well wishes, but after a deep dive, one response stood out to Closer online.
Ester commented, "Seema is back 😍", to which a Housewives fan (who, frankly, should be working for us) replied, "Ester, why are you not back?"
To which Ester replied, "On holiday 😍."
So there you have it, throw out your conspiracy theories because as it turns out Ester Dee's recent holidays to Portugal, Italy, Spain, Cape Verde AND the Maldives clashed with series 17 filming, which probably means she'll be back for the next special/AKA another free holiday.
How Cheshire Housewife of you, Ester. Forever obsessed.
While we've got you, ITV, Ester would make a great late addition to the CBB house, too. She's probably on holiday, though.