The pictures might be grainy but they are damning enough to make ’s life difficult.
Showbiz
Zara McDermotts Cheating Scandal: Joey Essex Kiss Exposed
The pictures might be grainy but they are damning enough to make Zara McDermott’s life difficult.They were taken as the former Love Islander, 29, was laughing a...
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They were taken as the former Love Islander, 29, was laughing and chatting with , one of her fellow celebrities in a new series of Cooking With The Stars being filmed for .
As the couple said their goodbyes in the foyer of a London TV studio after the show’s wrap party, the former Only Way Is Essex star – who has a reputation for being a love rat – planted an intimate kiss on the side of Zara’s head.
Only the back of her hair can be seen in the kiss pictures but, as she turns round, it is unmistakably her.
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When she exited the building, Zara – who has been dating star for just over a year – kept her eyes down as she strode past the waiting paparazzi wearing baggy denim jeans, a white cropped T-shirt and an oversized pleather bomber jacket.
But the damage had, unfortunately, already been done.
Within seconds of the pictures being uploaded to TikTok and X, online group chats popular with ‘Directioners’ – the boy band’s most die-hard fans – were abuzz with speculation.
‘I’m hardly surprised. Once a cheater, always a cheater,’ wrote one critic, a reference to McDermott’s dalliance with a music boss when she was a contestant on Celebrity X Factor in 2019, while she was still going out with fellow reality star Sam Thompson.
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Zara McDermott was seen in the foyer of a London TV studio after the wrap party for Cooking With The Stars, with Joey Essex kissing the side of her head
The pair were clearly recognisable as they turned around to exit the building and the pictures were circulated on social media
McDermott’s infidelity was revealed on Made In Chelsea a year later in a now notorious scene filmed on a park bench in west London in which a distraught Zara tearfully begs Sam, now 33, to put her behaviour behind them, screaming: ‘You can forgive me!’
It was an encounter that sent shockwaves through the Channel 4 show and the clip went viral, with more than two million views on YouTube alone.
Despite this embarrassing episode, the couple went on to date for several more years.
And so when the pictures emerged of Essex’s most notorious philanderer, who is believed to be currently single, kissing Zara on the cheek after two weeks of filming together, it was no surprise that people were quick to cry ‘cheat’.
But I can reveal I have received a ‘100 per cent’ assurance from people with inside knowledge of the situation that the former Strictly Come Dancing star has remained faithful to pop sensation, Louis.
‘That is a peck on the cheek at the wrap party for Cooking With The Stars and nothing more, I am sure of it,’ a source says. ‘She and Louis are properly loved up and this isn’t anything.’
Despite moving in similar reality TV circles – both Zara and Joey have appeared on Love Island, Zara in the 2018 series and Joey, 35, making a surprise celebrity appearance in 2024 – the pair have no history of a previous friendship.
Their current closeness has grown out of them being thrown together for an intensive fortnight of filming for Cooking With The Stars, alongside 2016 I’m A Celebrity winner Scarlett Moffatt, Strictly’s Karen Hauer and the Happy Mondays’ Bez.
Zara has been dating Louis Tomlinson, of One Direction, for just over a year. One source said the pair are 'properly loved up'
Zara previously had a relationship with Made in Chelsea star Sam Thompson. The pair split in January last year
The ITV show – presented by the new co-presenter of Strictly, Emma Willis, and the comedian Tom Allen – represents a return to the screen for The Only Way Is Essex star, who has taken a break in the past couple of years to focus on his mid-level boxing career.
Joey attributed his absence from the reality TV circuit to ‘running out of things to do on TV’ after appearing in 18 shows and after a particularly failed stint on Love Island, in which he sparked a furious audience backlash for his ‘toxic’ treatment of romantic partners.
He is not known to have been in a relationship since splitting from his Love Island girlfriend, Jessy Potts, two months after leaving the villa due to ‘incompatible lifestyles’ and ‘conflicting work schedules’.
The news that nothing untoward happened between Zara and Joey will no doubt disappoint the scores of Louis fans who have been against his relationship with Zara since the couple were first spotted enjoying a cosy dinner date at The Suffolk Hotel in Aldeburgh in March last year.
The sighting came just weeks after she announced her split from Sam, who she lived with in west London after dating for five years, leaving him ‘heartbroken’.
