THERE’S no doubt Spencer Matthews was the villain among the original cast of Made In Chelsea.
He joined the E4 reality show at the age of 19 and quickly became known for playing around with girls and causing bust-ups among the cast.
Spencer, now 36, even became responsible for one of Made In Chelsea‘s most iconic scenes, when he told his then-girlfriend Louise Thompson it was “hard” to respect her when she “let” him cheat on her.
Now he’s claimed much of the drama viewers saw was due to producers paying the cast financial bonuses.
Having quit the show in 2015, settled down with model wife Vogue Williams and gone sober, Spencer’s life is a far cry from the boozing ladies’ man he once was.
And he said his “worst nightmare” is his children, Theodore, six, Gigi, four, and two-year-old Otto, growing up and watching him on the show.
“Even if you’re an undramatic person or someone that hates confrontation, you will be thrust into confrontation and drama,” Spencer said on the High Performance podcast. “And actually, you know, we were praised. for creating drama.
“In some cases – I’m sure I’ll probably get into trouble for saying this – we’d be given bonuses if we created certain levels of drama.
“But then you get lost in this whirlpool of drama thinking you’re just doing a good job.”
Spencer went on to explain how the show was “pretty real” when it first began in in 2011.
However, slowly, the cast found it difficult to know what was real and what wasn’t as producers “started to dramatise normal situations”.
He continued: “You’d do a scene with someone, they’d be really bent out of shape about something, and then the cameras would stop and they’d be fine.
“And it was like ‘well are you p**sed off or are you not p**sed off, I don’t really get it?’
“I’m not suggesting by the way that what you see on in Made in Chelsea isn’t real, but it’s certainly elaborated and dramatised.
“If I’m not getting the nod to [former co-star Felstead] Binky‘s boat party, I don’t really give a s**t in real life, but it may be the case that you might have to care for the sake of a scene.”
Spencer added: “At the time, I definitely didn’t care what people thought of me. I don’t think that’s a great place to be, to be honest.
“I was drunk for a lot of Made in Chelsea and on some rampage. I don’t even really recognise the person that I was back then.”
Now a dad of three, Spencer feels ashamed of a lot of his behaviour on Made In Chelsea.
And even though he says he was playing a character, he is terrified of his children growing up and watching it.
He continues: “I thought it was really cool just not to give a s**t about anything or anyone, ‘I’m just going do whatever I want all of the time, and if you don’t like it, then you can do one’.
“And I just think that’s a bit lame, to be honest.
“It’s not how I’d encourage my boys to be, or my girl. I just think it’s a shame.”
He adds: “I think I felt like it was cool at the time, I just kind of just don’t really think it’s very cool anymore.
“I did see it as a role by the way, I don’t see it as real.
“Like my worst nightmare is my kids growing up and watching that stuff. It’s dire though. It’s really dire. I’m going have to explain to them that it was all fake or something.”
Spencer says he quit several times, but bigger pay offers brought him back, before he finally quit Made In Chelsea in 2015.
He said: “God, [I quit] far too late in the process. I’d already been villainised to death by this stage.
“I’d taken to wearing only black clothes and being the bad boy on set. And it had become part of the fun of being me in that show.
“I had a sudden realisation that I’d just had enough. I’d honestly had enough. I wanted a change, I wanted to come out.”
Friendship dramas, situationships and a tap dancing lesson – it’s safe to say that a lot is going to happen in SW3 this week! We give you the lowdown below of what to expect from the gang…
The bros are fighting
After his friendship drama with Reza Amiri-Garroussi, Tristan Phipps has taken himself away for some reflection time. Meanwhile Reza is still mad – especially now his ex-bestie has gone MIA.
With all his friendship drama, Rez decides now is not the right time to give headspace to Ruby and their will-they-won’t-they relationship.
As tension boils between the bros, when their paths do eventually cross in SW3, things are set to be explosive!
But Tristan has bigger issues on his mind after finding out his other pal, Sam Vanderpump, has been wining and dining his girl Muffin (Julia Pollard).
Will the boys ever sort things out? And has Tristan lost Muffin for good?
Hazz or Frazzy?
Happy with her blossoming romance with Freddy Knatchbull, Jasmine Saunders is not interested in Hugo MacKenzie-Wood and his attempts to win her over again.
However, her bestie Muffin thinks otherwise and encourages Hugo to keep trying his luck with Jazz.
Mother knows best
Now living with three Taylor boys, Maeva is having a tough time. Seeking refuge, she turns to her mother-in-law. Will Mummy Taylor be able to give her some much needed advice – and, more importantly, will Maeva take it?
Passion on tap
Sam Prince is keen to jazz things up and keep things fresh in his relationship with Yasmine Zweegers. So will Yas fall in love all over again when Sam treats her to a tap dancing session?
After he quit, Spencer’s close pal Jamie Laing stayed on the show all the way up until 2020.
And Spencer says he urged him to leave multiple times, due to it taking a toll on his mental health.
He says: “[Jamie] stayed with the show for years after I left. And he would come to me and he would say his anxiety was through the roof and he’d just be miserable.
“I’m not blaming the show but he’d be borderline depressed, just upset constantly in these dramatic scenarios.
“And I said to him ‘Just leave mate. You’ll see your life just go from a storm cloud to a beautiful beach sunset’.
“There’s no drama in my life at all. I don’t wake up with any drama. That show thrusts you purposefully into confrontational corners with created drama.
“So the minute you leave it you feel a huge weight lifted. And I don’t think it’s that healthy really.”
After Made In Chelsea, Spencer went on to do a host of other reality shows, including Celebrity Masterchef and The Jump – where he met his wife Vogue and also won the show.
Last year, he fronted a Disney+ documentary called Finding Michael, about his brother Michael, who died while climbing Mount Everest.
He is currently aiming for a world record for the most consecutive marathons on sand – 30 in 30 days in the desert covering 1,266km across Jordan.
And while he appreciates he wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of that without his start on Made In Chelsea, Spencer doesn’t like being associated with it.
He said: “Looking back at that now, I just feel like it’s a bit of a shame, all of it. It’s hard to say you regret because Made in Chelsea obviously gave me a platform to do other stuff – Finding Michael, raising lots of money for charity, podcasts with millions of listeners, all kinds of stuff.
“No one cares about any of that. It’s always Made in Chelsea, right? It’s ‘Spencer from Made in Chelsea’.
“It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but it does.”
And don’t expect to catch him sitting down for an episode of Made in Chelsea anytime soon.
He finishes: “I don’t love the show. It’s not my kind of TV.
“I suppose you can work at a job that you don’t love, right? But you wouldn’t ever catch me watching Made in Chelsea, TOWIE, Love Island.
“It kind of irritates me that is a part of my DNA in the minds of others because it’s kind of all crap really.”
We have reached out to Channel 4 for comment.
