Former TOWIE star Sam Faiers sent fans into a frenzy last week when she posted a loved-up pic with long-term partner Paul Knightley, wearing a huge diamond ring on her wedding finger.
Followers went into meltdown, asking in the comments whether the couple – who were on a lavish holiday to Dubai – had got engaged. But while a proposal is still unconfirmed, insiders say that Sam is desperate to head down the aisle and throw the celeb wedding of the year.
Sam, 32, and Paul, 34, have been together since 2014 and share three children – Paul, seven, Rosie, five, and Edward, 11 months.
An insider says, “Sam really wants to cement her celeb status with a proper star-studded wedding. She’s been dropping hints to Paul that now is the time, and everyone’s convinced that this will finally be the year they get married. She doesn’t want to wait until they’re older – she wants to look the best she’s ever looked for her big day, and right now she’s looking and feeling great. She wants the whole thing to be a truly decadent affair, a bash that people are going to remember forever.”
Sam found fame on TOWIE in 2010 along with sister Billie Faiers, and they’ve built up a reality TV empire with their shows The Baby Diaries and The Mummy Diaries, giving fans a behind-the-scenes insight into their family lives.
Speculation around wedding bells has been increasingly on the cards for the couple and Sam has admitted, “We’ve had a lot of pressure from people who watch the show. I know we will get married – but I’m grateful that we have it all to look forward to. The more the pressure the more it pushes Paul away.”
Sam’s sister Billie, 34, tied the knot with Greg Shepherd in 2019, in a lavish ceremony in the Maldives, thought to have cost more than £200K, and filmed for ITV in a 90-minute special. However, their big day was tainted when it made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Other guests staying at the five-star hotel it was held at made complaints about the raucous behaviour of some of Billie’s guests – saying they’d flouted hotel rules, taken over areas of the hotel for their own use, left dirty nappies on the beach and were rowdy.
And the source says that the drama has put Sam off getting married abroad.
“At one point, they were thinking of a destination wedding – but after all that went on at Billie’s, and after waiting so long, Sam’s had a change of heart. She’s decided she’d rather do it at a big country manor or castle to really put on a showstopper – and prove to the public how much she’s changed since her days hanging out at Sugar Hut. She’s been planning this wedding in her head for the past four years, but the pandemic, kids and life in general have got in the way and delayed things.
“But since having baby Edward last year, Sam’s feeling like she’s bounced back. She has even been trying on some designer wedding dresses and outfits with the help of a stylist to put together a mood board for her – she wants people to gasp when they see her final look. After moving away from Essex to Surrey and changing her look, Sam really wants the whole wedding to officially be the start of this next chapter in her life – and she said she just wants everything to look ‘posh and perfect’ on the big day.”
Former best friend of the sisters, Ferne McCann, was by Billie’s side at her wedding in the Maldives, and on her hen do to Mykonos a few months earlier. But last year, voice notes of Ferne insulting Sam’s appearance and calling her a “fat c***” and a “narcissistic b**ch” were leaked online, as well as Ferne calling the victim of her ex-partner Arthur Collins’ acid attack “ugly”.
Both Sam and Billie immediately unfollowed Ferne on Instagram, and their mum Suzie Wells spoke out about the voice notes, saying, “This has come as a complete shock to myself and my family. Ferne has always been a very close family member to all of us over the past 20 years.”
But despite Ferne publicly apologising, saying the recordings were taken out of context and were also sent years ago when she was a “different person”, reports have claimed the Faiers sisters are still not on speaking terms
with Ferne.
And the source says that, while there’ll be a star-studded guest list at her wedding, Ferne would absolutely not receive an invite.
The source adds, “Sam’s dream guest list would include all the big stars she’s met and worked with in her career, like Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Ollie Locke, Keith Lemon and Luisa Zissman. There are a lot of other famous people she’s met that she will be extending an invite to as well. But she’s made it absolutely clear from the outset that Ferne is not going to be anywhere near the wedding – and would be banned from attending any festivities. There’s really no love lost there from Sam’s perspective.”
