We'll put our hands up; earlier this month we were fully gearing up for three weeks of writing about Chris Hughes and Ella Rae Wise's Big Brother love story in the Celebrity Big Brother house. We took one look at the confirmed line-up and assumed that would be the major storyline - and so did lots of you, don't lie.
Never in our wildest showbiz dreams did we ever think the spotlight relationship of Celebrity Big Brother 2025 would be between Chris and international pop sensation, JoJo Siwa. On our 2025 Bingo card that was not. But, let's be honest, that's the beauty of Big Brother - who the f**k knows what could happen when you chuck a dozen celebrities into a house without their teams, phones or their ample fortunes around them?
And let's be honest here, it's pretty evident that TOWIE's Ella was as equally surprised by these turn of events. In fact, numerous sources and Big Brother viewers firmly believe that she was expecting to embark on some sort of 'showmance' inside the house with Chris, but, his attention was firmly fixed on JoJo for the duration of her stint. Pretty much since housemates and viewers saw some sort of spark between Chris and JoJo, Ella has raised a rather perfect eyebrow at it, insinuating that the 'game-playing' Chris was just using JoJo for clout and followers.
As such, Ella and Chris weren't the closest in the house - with Chris even branding Ella as 'jealous' and Ella calling Chris a 'social climber' - but towards the end of her Big Brother journey, they did appear to clear the air.
While Chris and JoJo made it to the final, Ella was evicted on 'Triple Tuesday' just short of the final. Since leaving the house, the TOWIE star has been doing the usual press rounds since and we'll be honest, one of these interviews has absolutely floored the heat team.
On the morning of the Celebrity Big Brother final, Ella was interviewed by Ranvir Singh on Lorraine and, naturally, she was asked to comment on Chris and JoJo's relationship (which they maintain is platonic and genuine, despite the PDA levels being strong). Based on what we've seen from Ella over the last two weeks, we were fully expecting her to go off on one TOWIE-style.
In a wild turn of events, Ella gave Ranvir the most PR answer imaginable, saying, 'All I see is that they’re really good friends.'
She then added, 'I just see a close friendship and them being there for each other really.'
Huh?
As we said, Ella did leave the house feeling a little warmer towards Chris and JoJo, so it's quite possible that she's left, had some time to reflect and has genuinely changed her mind, but we know a perfectly-prepared PR answer when we see one, and we've just noticed that our less-than-perfect eyebrow is now raised, too. Hmm.
The Celebrity Big Brother live final airs tonight at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player and either Chesney Hawkes, Danny Beard, Donna Preston, Jack P. Shepherd, JoJo or Chris will be declared the winner.