Lauren Goodger’s return to The Only Way Is Essex has resulted in the show’s biggest launch episode since 2021.
The reality star, 37, is back on the show that first launched her to fame almost seven years after her exit.
The first episode of series 32 began airing on March 24 and Lauren’s return attracted 407,000 viewers to the ITVBe show.
Additionally, the new series has been streamed 1.2million times on ITVX as viewers tune in for more romance and drama.
By comparison, the first episode of series 31 attracted 300,000 viewers, the first of series 30 was watched by 319,000 viewers and the first of series 29 got 397,000.
Lauren Goodger’s return to The Only Way Is Essex has resulted in the show’s biggest launch episode since 2021
The reality star, 37, is back on the show that first launched her to fame almost seven years after her exit (pictured with Mark Wright in 2011)
Lauren spoke about how happy she was to be back with the Essex gang during an appearance on This Morning.
‘It feels weird because it’s so long ago but coming back to the show it feels like I never left,’ she told Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond on the ITV show.
‘I feel like the same Lauren again, it’s really weird.’
In the time Lauren was away from the show, she became a mother to Larose, two, and Lorena who sadly passed away just after birth.
On the day of Lorena’s funeral in August 2022, Lauren’s ex-boyfriend Charles Drury was accused of attacking her. He was charged with assault and engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour towards his ex, which he denied.
Of why she decided to return, she said: ‘Becoming a mum, you sort of lose your own identity, I went through a very traumatic time, sort of lost myself completely. I was in a healing process, which I still am but all I could be was a mum, there was nothing else.
‘I wasn’t interested in work, but now this is a new year and I feel I found who I am again. I’d completely lost myself but I’ve come back home.’
Last year it was reported that Lauren had been approached to return to The Only Way Is Essex as bosses try and woo her back to the show and she announced in December she was coming back.
The first episode of series 32 began airing on March 24 and Lauren’s return attracted 407,000 viewers to the ITVBe show
Lauren spoke about how happy she was to be back with the Essex gang during an appearance on This Morning, saying it feels like she never left (pictured with Amy Childs)
On having the cameras following their lives, Lauren said, ‘It’s all we know, really, It’s where we started, I was only young, 21/22’ (Pictured with Mark Wright, Same Faiers and Kirk Norcross in 2011)
It is an exciting time for Lauren, whose last appearance on the show was a brief return in 2016.
Lauren was part of the original 2010 line-up for the show, which focused on her long-term relationship with Mark Wright, and left in 2012 after their break up in series six.
Mark is now married to actress Michelle Keegan, and the two have been together for over ten years.
She returned briefly in 2015 for The Only Way Is Essexmas and, looking to the future, said she wants to ‘meet up with Amy Childs and go for lunch with the kids!’
Speaking of how her life has changed since her TOWIE days as she is now a mum, she said of her daughter Larose to OK!: ‘I am absolutely obsessed with her.
‘She’s beautiful. When she wakes up in the morning, even if it’s 5am, I’m like, ‘Baby, kiss Mummy,’ and she kisses me. She’s so affectionate and so clever.
‘She’s not in nursery, but we do a lot of playgroups. I don’t have a nanny and have no help at all.’
