GIOVANNA and Tom Fletcher are known as one of showbiz’s most successful love stories.
The couple’s wedding video has been viewed over 22 million times on YouTube after Tom serenaded his new bride with a McFly medley – but it seems it wasn’t happily ever after from the get-go.
Speaking to Fabulous magazine, the Queen of the Jungle revealed that she had previously split with Tom before reuniting during his McFly years.
Giovanna and Tom met as 13 year olds and were boyfriend and girlfriend by the end of their first day at the Sylvia Young Theatre School.
They continued an on-off relationship throughout their teens, before breaking up at 16 and going their separate ways.
Even then and despite dating other people, there was always something that kept them connected to each other.
“I felt it from day one” she tells Fabulous.
“There was just something about him, something that kept drawing us in. I had a boyfriend for the 14 months we weren’t together but Tom was always there. We never left each other alone, really.”
This was around the time McFly were taking off and Tom would send Giovanna songs he’d written.
She remembers playing them to her then-boyfriend as he raised a suspicious eyebrow.
“He was a bit like: ‘Er, this is interesting.’ But in my head it was innocent” she recalls.
“When I met the McFly boys for the first time Dougie [Poynter] said: ‘He literally talks about you non-stop’ and I remember being in Namibia [where she spent a month doing charity work] and thinking about Tom more than I did my boyfriend.
“But even then I put it down to the fact that he was my first love.”
That was until one evening while en route to her boyfriend’s place, Giovanna had what she describes as “an epiphany”.
She broke up with him that same night, got back with Tom shortly afterwards and they have been together ever since, all the way through McFly’s chart-topping years and Giovanna’s career as a bestselling author – she currently has 11 books under her belt, two of which were co-written with Tom.
“It’s been amazing seeing each other through different points of our careers. I remember when McFly had their first performance in the UK, walking down Carnaby Street with them afterwards and there was this huge scream from a bunch of girls.
“I think I realised that was it – the start – and this was going to be how things were going to play out for a little while.”
Was she ever worried about groupies and the long spells apart while the band were on tour?
“Well, we’ve all seen the films and the girls and we know that happens, but you kind of have to go: ‘I’m the one he is coming home to.’
“And if he’d wanted to do that, then our relationship wasn’t what I thought it was anyway. It splinters a relationship if the trust isn’t there, but I feel like we’ve been really good in that way.”
The fact the boys were never big party- goers was also key to ensuring they stayed scandal-free. Giovanna says they always preferred the local pub to a West End club.
“We’re definitely not that rock and roll. As a band, they were never the ones to be out in clubs all the time.
“We’d do it every now and then, but it was never our thing. We were never the cool kids and we’re happy with that because being cool is overrated!
“We always liked being in someone’s house or going to the pub and coming back to our place, putting on some music and drinking wine and dancing in the kitchen.
“Who wants to live your life for other people so they’ll think you’re super-cool? We’ve been very happy being uncool and doing what works for us. It wasn’t about being seen pouting in clubs, it was about us just being silly together.”
Life hasn’t always been plain-sailing though. Tom, who is also a bestselling children’s author thanks to The Christmasaurus and the Dinosaur That Pooped series, has been open about his struggles with mental health and Giovanna supported him through some dark times. Fame so young was difficult and he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010.
“It was really tough,” says Giovanna. “Now I feel like he’s really good, but there was a time where I’d notice the cycles of it. Whether it was recording or touring, there was definitely a connection to what he was doing band-wise.
“All you can do as a partner is be there and listen and try to be as supportive as possible; you don’t want to add extra pressure. But since the kids have come along he’s not had any dips. He came off his medication when Buzz was about one.”
Twenty-two years since they first met and after eight years of marriage, they remain the best of friends. No one can make her laugh like Tom even if “passion” has to take a backseat these days.
“People say that about the passion and it’s like: ‘Give off, I’ve had three kids!’ Best friends and comfort is where I’m at and we’re both really happy with that.
“We can get side-tracked sometimes by the things we’re told we should and shouldn’t feel and I think if you can come together at the end of the day and say: ‘Sorry for being a bit of a twerp earlier,’ and chat and laugh then that’s the most important thing.”
Do they still fancy each other?
“Yeah!” she says immediately. “It’s just incredible seeing Tom doing the things he loves and being so talented. I admire him in a different way to when I was 16. I think the attraction deepens, it’s less flimsy. It’s solid.”
She points out that baby number three Max was a happy surprise. “So we definitely still fancy each other!”
Giovanna is hosting The Toddler Club At Home on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer from Monday January 11.
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