Lydia Bright's turbulent on/off relationship with James 'Arg' Argent is perhaps one of the greatest TOWIE storylines ever, and frankly, we can't believe it hasn't been playing out on our screens since December 2016.
A moment for the passage of time, please.
These days, Lydia is busy being mum to daughter Loretta, renovating her GORGEOUS 18th century Georgian home and, apparently and as of late, working with Crockpot (the slow cooker), which to us is slightly iconic.
During a lengthy catch-up with Lydia on family life, TOWIE and all things slow-cooking the topic of her unique childhood got brought up. We say unique, as lovely Lydia is daughter to fellow TOWIE icon Debbie Bright, who began fostering needy children when 32-year-old Lydia was just 13 months old. Before appearing on the reality series that made Lydia a household name, Lydia had hundreds (and we do mean hundreds) of foster brothers and sisters.
Naturally, that many children coming in and out of one household is bound to come with a fair few pros and cons for Debbie's biological children; in fact, Lydia described her upbringing as "chaotic", "carnage" and "magic" at times in an exclusive chat with Closer.
She told us, "Our family environment was yeah, very chaotic, because there was so many children. My mum and dad are still doing it to this day - at the moment they've currently got five placements. So, you know, it's, it's always been a massive part of our family.
"And there's always been a lot of people in our household, which was carnage, because there was always stuff everywhere. It was also just so magical. And I always try and shine a light on the positives of being brought up in that sort of environment. Because we always had someone to play with.
"It's sort of like, whenever you have all your friends around, it was like that with us constantly. There was always activities going on. There was always people to talk to. And I just think as well it just instilled a lot on my parents' biological children."
Just when we thought we couldn't adore this mother and daughter combo anymore. Now, how about a cheeky TOWIE return?
Join Lydia and the Crock-Pot® Kind Communities challenge by whipping up a simple, shareable one-pot wonder that will bring your friends, family and neighbours together to create connection and reduce loneliness. For a chance to win £1,000 to spend on groceries and a brand-new Crock-Pot® Sizzle and Stew Slow Cooker or a Turbo Express Multi-cooker, post an image or video of a home-cooked dish you’ve made for someone in your community on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook using hashtag #KindCommunties and tagging in @crockpotuk before 5pm, October 30th