Why TOWIE’s Pete Wicks and Lauren Pope are at war

He might be one of the most desirable men in tellyland but Pete's not got loads of proper relationships to his name (in fact, that makes sense). Instead he's got a string of romantic liaisons under his belt.

Way back in 2015, shortly after joining TOWIE, Pete and Jess struck up a romantic connection but their boat was rocked when she drunkenly snogged fellow cast mate Lewis Bloor. "I think after the whole Lewis Bloor thing, it kind of made me realise I don't want to fall out with her because I've always said I love her as a person. We nearly fell out over that,"said Pete at the time."But we're not really compatible relationship-wise. We'll always have a bit of chemistry but we're better off as friends."

Jess is the sister of TOWIE OG and household name Mark Wright, but has gone on to have a killer career of her own. She had some success as a singer after signing a three-single deal with All Around the World records and is now a popular Instagram influencer. In 2020 she announced she was engaged to her CEO boyfriend, William Lee-Kemp.

Next of the TOWIE conquests was Verity Chapman, who joined the cast in 2015 and fell out with almost all the female cast, lasting on the show just a year. She did catch the eye of Pete though during her brief stint, and the pair were romantically linked after sharing a kiss.

Verity also briefly dated Made in Chelsea's resident lothario Spencer Matthews but is now loved up with a boyfriend out of the public eye. She runs Verity's Brow Bar in north London and is qualified in administering filler and microblading.

Pete and Harriette dated before he entered the spotlight but she quickly followed suit, appearing on Ex on the Beach in 2017alongside Charlotte Dawson and even hinting she would love to join TOWIE. "If the situation was right and the storyline was right I would most definitely join TOWIE. I would shake it up," she said."It needs shaking up. It feels like the same old stories – she cheated on him, he cheated on her, blah blah… I feel like they need someone in there to rock the boat and I could do it."

She's done the rounds in reality TV and has since been linked to Aaron Chalmers from Geordie Shore and was rumoured to be engaged to influencer and model Sam Reece. She now has a son, Hudson, with Belle from Love Island's brother, Taşer Hassan.

Arguably his most high profile relationship, Pete dated Megan for a year and a half in 2016 but their relationship turned sour - which was all caught on TOWIE for all to see. They eventually broke up over infidelity claims with Pete reportedly sexting his ex.

One of TOWIE's biggest stars, in recent years Megan has been focusing on her music career as she tries to carve out a space for her favourite genre, country, in the UK. She won The X Factor: Celebrity in 2019.And - PLOT TWIST - Megan also signed up to the Celebrity Dating Agency in 2019 where she filmed with Pete for the first time since their split and put their bad blood behind them.

The ex in question was Jacqui Ryland, an ex-glamour model. In 2017 she went public with sexts from Pete and said, "It was the whole thing about girl code."It wasn't about being fame-hungry...it was to tell Megan, 'Don't be fooled by all this'. I think from her point of view it was 100 per cent genuine, but from his, not so much."

Jacqui now describes herself as a "fashion and fitness influencer" and has 108k followers on Instagram. She's a mum to two sons and a daughter, who she keeps off social media.

His next serious relationship was with another TOWIE cast member (and Megan lookalike) Shelby Tribble, who he dated in 2018. Following their split after Pete was (once again) caught sexting other women, Shelby said, "To be honest, I always felt like I was living in Megan's shadow, because when we first got together he used to mention her a lot."My relationships have taught me not to change who you are for a man."

Shelby is now happily loved up with fellow former TOWIE star Sam Mucklowe and in 2020 they announced they were expecting their first baby."Something fantastic is making us glad, we're changing our names to Mum and Dadud83eudd30ud83cudffd❤ufe0fud83dudc76ud83cudffc," she wrote on Instagram.

Pete was linked to Love Island star Megan after the two of them reportedly disappeared together during a wild night out at a strip club while she was still with Wes Nelson. He was swift to slam the claims, though, saying, "Do you know what, it's so ridiculous. At the minute I seem to be getting links with a new person every week.""Obviously Megan's in a relationship, seems really happy, it's like a friendly thing. It's turning into a bit of a pantomime. It's just ridiculous. There's no truth in any of it. I just seem to get typecast as being some sort of pantomime villain at the minute."

After breaking up with Wes, Megan went on to star on the following season of Celebs Go Dating where she found love with fellow celeb, TOWIE's Demi Sims. After that relationship broke down, Megan dated musician Chelcee Grimes.

Pete had some successful dates on Celebs Go Dating but shortly after starring announced he'd gone official with a girl not on the show, Georgina Mullins, after meeting on Instagram."I met someone recently who has been a bit of a game changer," he said. "I'm with someone now who is a lovely girl. She's not from Essex and I'm out of the game."We are dating exclusively and I am really, really happy. She's not like anyone I have dated before."The relationship soon fizzled out and Georgia has disappeared off social media.

Despite always insisting they were just friends and telling Closer with his OWN MOUTH they'd never go there in 2019 (how could you, Pete?) in October 2020 it was finally revealed they'd been friends with benefits for TWO years. The saga continues as Pete fails to commit while Chloe threatens to end their friendship all together...