Rylan Clark-Neal: ‘I used to break into Buckingham Palace!’

There is nothing better than hearing Rylan Clark-Neal call you “babe” – even if it’s over Zoom – and so we jumped at the chance find out how the 32-year-old TV presenter has been handling the latest lockdown and what he and husband Dan have been doing to keep themselves busy…

Have you enjoyed finally having friends in the garden again?

I was lucky enough to have my brother in law's kids over in the garden [for Easter], which was nice. They popped over and did a little easter egg hunt. So that was really nice to actually be able to use the old rule of six.

And did the adults pop some prosecco to celebrate?

Well yeah, I mean it’s only fair right?

You’ve teamed up with i heart wines, which seems like the perfect match to us…

I’ve always bought i heart wines prosecco – and my sister-in-law is obsessed with it – but I’m not the biggest drinker. I’ll have a drink when people come over, obviously, but one of the main reasons I wanted to team up with them is the sheer fact that I’m very normal… and if I know I can get a nice bottle of wine or a nice bottle of Prosecco for under a tenner, I'm all over it.

We love that. Always relatable Rylan. And are we right in saying that your This Morning pal Ruth Langsford is one of your favourite people to drink with?

Oh, she loves it! Her and Claire from Steps. When she realised that I was doing this – Claire is Queen of Prosecco, that's what we call her – the second she knew I was doing this she was like, “Does that mean I can get Prosecco from you now?” I was like, “Alright love, maybe ring a helpline!” But yeah, definitely, whenever Ruth's come over, it is literally just me and Ruth and a glass of something. And that's it. The mouth starts and we are just on one. We love it.

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Have you and Dan found any new TV obsessions over the latest lockdown?

We watched all of Unforgotten and The Crown from the beginning. I'd never watched The Crown which was strange, because when I was at Big Brother, The Crown was filming next door. In the summer, we used to run around and break into Buckingham Palace! We were naughty! To me, it didn't mean a lot but now I've watched it, I've become obsessed.

You’re a fabulous presenter on Strictly: It Takes Two, does this mean we’ll never see your Foxtrot as a contestant on the show?

I don't think I could ever be a contestant now that I’ve been one of the presenters. I don't think it'd be fair, and also I wouldn’t want to show up everyone because obviously I'd be amazing. No, I love the show and I love dancing, don't get me wrong. I feel like I've got the best of both worlds because on It Takes Two I can learn the moves, work with these amazing dancers and talk about a show I love watching. I get to be part of it without having to go through the broken leg and the 48 hours of training a week.

Rylan is a brand ambassador for i heart wines

Read more in the latest issue of heat magazine - OUT NOW.