Celebrity MasterChef 2025: Chris Hughes' controversial romance with Celebrity Big Brother co-starJoJo Siwa
She ditched her lover to be with him
Celebrity MasterChef 2025 contestant Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa’s relationship has been in the news since April, but why does it attract so much controversy?
The pair met on Celebrity Big Brother, with the Love Islander entering the house as a single man and JoJo dating Kath Ebbs at the time. Despite the Dance Moms star’s romantic situation and supposed sexual orientation, the chemistry between her and Chris was off the scale.
Over the next few months things got serious between them. So let’s really get to the bottom of this controversial couple…
JoJo Siwa dumped her girlfriend for Chris Hughes
The Celebrity Big Brother housemates casually shared the same bed together and thought nothing of cuddling in front of the cameras. She switched her sexuality live on air, telling co-star Danny Beard: “I think being here – I’ve realised I am not a lesbian, I’m queer. And I think that’s really cool, I’m switching letters! I’ve dropped the L and I’ve gone to the Q baby!”
While all this was going down, JoJo’s partner Kath revealed on Instagram that she’d been told she was the love of her life. Apparently, engagement was even on the cards. She proceeded to fly out to London ahead of the reality show’s finale – JoJo ended up finishing third behind Danny and winner Jack P. Shepherd.
At the afterparty, Kath was unceremoniously dumped and two weeks later she addressed the brutal blow for the first time. “It has come to my attention in the past eight hours that everything we saw unfold on what I thought was a fake reality show, where I didn’t need to worry about the validity of my relationship, was in fact laced in a lot of truth,” she said in a social media clip.
Kath described the experience as intense, crazy and “horrific”, while JoJo herself suggested during an appearance on This Morning that their separation wasn’t “supposed to happen” in such a public manner.
Cut to May and the couple were caught by paparazzi enjoying a smooch. Soon after, JoJo confirmed they’d gone official. She told The Guardian: “It’s not platonic anymore, and it’s been a beautiful development, a beautiful connection. I’m absolutely head over heels for him and he’s the same way.”
The couple’s age gap
Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwas have an age gap of 11 years.
When he uploaded photos of them onto Instagram – on the sofa, kissing, playing golf and eating – one user asked if anybody else found it “creepy”.
“No, Pauline, you’re miserable, [bleep] off kindly,” Chris himself directly responded. “Damn this is inappropriate,” claimed another follower, and Chris bit back again. “I have friends who are 50+ too, you weirdo,” he wrote.
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LGBTQ+ community’s reaction
Appearing on a September episode of podcast Reign with Josh Smith, JoJo revealed that the LGBTQ+ community targeted her after she got with Chris. One person apparently stood outside her recording studio for two minutes sticking their middle finger up at her.
“It’s hard because it feels like my own family has turned a little bit,” JoJo shared. “We are the LGBTQIA+ community, not the LG community. It’s a beautiful rainbow and the number one saying of the queer community is ‘love is love’. And that goes both ways.”
Fellow queer women on the street have even made fun of the star, laughing right at her. “I see them point, I see them roll their eyes. I see them come up to me and take a photo and run away. I see them flip me off while I’m driving,” she told Josh.
This whole experience has made JoJo recognise “how brutal hate can be outside of the community and inside of the community”. She went on to warn that although she can handle the criticism, maybe other people wouldn’t be able to stomach it.
“I’m very happy, I’m very loved. I give a lot of love. I feel a lot of love. I am in a great place. Who it is affecting is the people who are younger than us seeing what you’re saying,” she pointed out.
Is it all just a PR stunt?
During an interview in the summer, The Guardian asked JoJo if her Chris romance was all just a PR stunt.
She replied: “Clearly, you’ve never been around us. I won’t ever speak for him, but for me personally, the happiness in my life just radiates off of me right now. Literally yesterday, I was massaging my cheeks; I’ve never been in pain from smiling so much.”
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What have Chris and JoJo said about their controversial relationship?
On the subject of his romance with JoJo, Chris once told E! News that she was “the love of my life, but also my best friend”.
“I think the universe literally said, ‘Oh yeah, by the way. You two belong together, you’ll figure it out eventually’,” was Jojo’s explanation for how they came to be. “We’ve both been in relationships prior, but I think that’s why this feels easy because it’s very right. We have fun and we keep things light.
“I’m just happier,” she added. “I feel like I’ve finally settled into myself. I’ve tried so many different looks over the years, but now I just feel like me.”
Read more: Celebrity MasterChef 2025 star Gaz Choudhry: How did he lose his leg?
