Jedward are loving experiencing life in London after making the move last summer.
Twins John and Edward Grimes, 33, grew up in the Irish village of Rathangan, Co Kildare, and aside from a spell in Los Angeles, it’s all they’ve ever really known.
While they had visited London many times after shooting to fame as finalists on TV singing competition The X Factor in 2009, they had never before called the capital home.
Settling on leafy Belsize Park in North West London, they feel they’ve made the right choice.
“We’ve never been based in London, we only moved here last June but we’ve already been enriched in life, like seeing all of the different areas and meeting all of the creative people,” John told The Standard.
“We’re always bumping into Ricky Gervais around here and you went jogging with Harry Styles once with his dog, didn’t you,” he adds looking at Edward, who confirms and notes it has been a while as Watermelon Sugar singer Styles has been spending time in Rome lately.
The brothers note they love being able to do things like mooch around the Tate Museum, but are less enthused about the number of tourists when they venture more into town. They are grateful therefore to be able to escape at times to Essex to see best friend Gemma Collins and her menagerie of pets, which includes two cats, two dogs and a chicken.
“If we’re feeling like we need pet love and that normality, it’s nice to get away from the craziness of London,” they explained. “Cos it is stressful in London. Obviously we’re up here in Belsize in Hampstead but when we go to Central and there are so many tourists and you get like that PTSD of being surrounded by crowds.”
Jedward and Collins – who refers to herself as “The GC” and plays on her diva reputation – have enjoyed an unlikely friendship since first meeting while taking part in Celebrity Big Brother in 2017 and now consider each other “family”.
Reflecting on why their friendship works, John said: “Gemma’s live energy, she wakes up very early in the day and we never know what’s planned. She brings a lot of emotions and vibes and brings the glitter when she needs to, but at the same time it is a very real experience.
“I think what’s good is we’ve had a lot of the same experiences so we kind of see each other for people and know that we’ve been through a lot of the same stuff and the same amount of scrutiny over the years.”
“When we’re both together it’s like a UFO sighting, people are like ‘how is that real?’ They almost like see Gemma, then they see us and then it’s like do they know us? Do they know Gemma? Who are they freaking out about? Then it’s like an overload of selfies.”
Jedward – who have four albums under their belts and have represented Ireland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest – say Collins has also been on at them to get back in the recording studio.
“She’ll just be like ‘guys, I think you need to focus on the music. Get into the studio and get the songs done’. Because sometimes we talk about it, like we put out a Christmas song last year. We were talking about it and she was like ‘when are you getting in the studio? I want to make sure that you’re in the studio tomorrow’ and keep tabs on us. She’ll check in to make sure that we’ve done what we’ve said we’re gonna do. We don’t really have family here in London so Gemma’s our main person.
They were also delighted about recently getting the chance to team up with her to attempt to beat a Guinness World Record for the most sticky notes stuck to a person’s body in one minute (as you do!)
Collins told the Lipstick hit-makers that they could “stick’em anywhere” on her, but despite their best efforts, the trio fell short of the record. They managed to stick 30 sticky notes on their best attempt, leaving them shy of the required number of 70. The tougher-than-expected challenge was overseen by a Guinness World Records adjudicator.
The reason behind their wanting to do this was? They were helping to launch new limited edition Dr Pepper flavour, Cherry Crush Zero Sugar.
The soft drink giant conducted research that found 89 per cent of people think that friends are some of the most important people you can have in life, with 65 per cent claiming having good friends is as important as having a partner.
Both said that they were devastated that they couldn’t get the record “for Gemma”.
“In times of emergencies, I have spray tanned Gemma everywhere, and she was like, ‘go for it,” Edward said. “We’re very good friends, we’re lucky that we get to call her a friend and that we get to do things together.”
John added: “The other night a makeup artist didn’t turn up and I had to help her draw some eyebrows on, I even did some contouring. I might not be an expert, but it’s great that we have known each other for a number of years now and we spent Christmas together and then brands like Dr Pepper Cherry Crush are acknowledging our friendship and that no-one else can do this together.”
