Holly Willoughby's 'intense' early relationship with co-worker husband Dan Baldwin
Holly Willoughby is among many celebrities who met her partner at work, and she recently reminisced about how their "intense" relationship turned romantic, revealing the "real secret" to her marriage.
The This Morning star met TV producer Dan while working on the children's entertainment show Ministry Of Mayhem in 2004. Although they were just friends for six months, she saw him in a different light after work one evening which she said "took me by surprise."
"We met when I was doing Saturday morning kids telly, and he was the producer and I was the presenter," Holly said in a Wylde Moon Instagram video. "I remember I'd already been there for about eight months I think, and then he came in as our new producer, and we started this real intense friendship.
"It was mad actually, there were sort of two other guys that started at the same time, and we just became inseparable. We'd rehearse, and then we'd go out afterwards, and then we'd end up... We were filming down in Maidstone Studios and we used to stay in a hotel there.
"And you know everybody would go to the bar and then everybody would come back into either my room or their room and we'd all sit round just talking and laughing, and I just remember it just being such a fun time. I always describe that time as sort of my university years, really.
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"This must have been sort of six months of real intense friendship and I remember this one night we were in the bar and I cheersed Dan. And I remember my eye just caught him for a little bit longer than it should have done, and I looked at him, and thought, 'Oh my god, I fancy Dan Baldwin.' It took me by complete surprise, and then the rest is history."
Holly admitted that she's glad their relationship was built on friendship as it has helped them build a strong and long-lasting foundation which has seen them welcome three children: Harry, Belle and Chester.
"Looking back on it now I think what I was thinking was an intense friendship was probably me falling in love," she said. "I think that's a really good basis for romance because we have that friendship still now and we've got three beautiful children, and we're very happy and I'm very blessed every day for having him in my life.
"But underpinning all of that is that real friendship and laughter and just having good times together. I think it's the real secret to keeping things as they are, which is lovely."
The couple got engaged in 2006 after Dan proposed while Holly was in the bathtub, and they exchanged vows on 4 August 2007. After their ceremony at St Michael's Church, the newlyweds headed to Amberley Castle for their wedding reception and Holly later admitted she was "in tears" all day.
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