'I'm feeling broody' - CBB star on marriage, babies and boyfriend

She was treading the boards years before her stint on Celebrity Big Brother 2024 and West End star Marisha Wallace, who finished eighth on the show back in March, has a number of very high-profile fans as a result. The US-born singer, who has appeared in Dreamgirls, Guys And Dolls and Hairspray, can count the King and Queen among her admirers – and a recent meeting with the couple cemented their mutual appreciation.

Speaking to us from the car park of a Starbucks in North Carolina (yes, really), Marisha, 38, is practically giddy with excitement. She’s back in her home state because she’s just bought her beloved mum a house and she needs to close the deal, plus, she’s coming down off the high of meeting the royals at last month’s garden party at Buckingham Palace. “Oh, my God, it was amazing,” she squeals, as she settles down for our chat.

“The party was held to celebrate culture and arts, and as I’d been nominated for an Olivier Award twice, the Olivier committee invited me. It was a huge honour. I knew the King and Queen were there, but I didn’t think I was going to get to meet them.

“So we went up to Queen Camilla and Arlene [Phillips] says, ‘This is Marisha, she played Adelaide in Guys And Dolls.’ I knew Camilla had seen the show in December, but I hadn’t met her as it wasn’t an official visit. But she remembered me. She said, ‘Oh, my God, you were brilliant. I loved you!’ She went wild! I felt like I was at the stage door with my fans! She fangirled me. It was the most surreal thing. She kept saying, ‘I loved it, my grandkids loved it, everyone loved it!’

Marisha continues, “She then called Charles over saying, ‘Charles, Charles, come here, it’s Adelaide!’ I couldn’t believe what was happening. I’ve done a lot of gigs for the royal family, I’ve done the Festival of Remembrance twice and I performed at a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth. I remember looking out and seeing the family crying while I was singing. But up until that point I’d never got to meet them. “Honestly, the power of theatre. It has taken me from a little old farm in Carolina, all the way to Buckingham Palace where I’m being fangirled by the King and Queen!”

It’s been a long road for Marisha, who famously received her second Olivier Award nomination, for Best Actress in a Musical for Guys And Dolls, while she was in the Big Brother house. But unfortunately she lost out on the night to Nicole Scherzinger for her role in Sunset Boulevard. So were there any hard feelings? “Oh, she’s so cool and she told me she loved watching me and that I was great. There’ll be other times for me – maybe third time lucky.”

Having mastered her craft through years of hard work on the theatre circuit, you might expect Marisha to be put out that Nicole, a former Pussycat Doll with a pop background, would step in and steal her thunder.

But Marisha’s having none of it. “I can’t tell Nicole to stay in her lane, because I make music too,” she says. “If she can only be a pop star and I can only be a musical theatre star, we’re boxed in. And I don’t want anybody boxing me in. I’d love to do arena tours, sell records and be in pop music just like Nicole. You want to be able to do your art any way you can.”

Away from work, Marisha is happily loved-up with Mike Whittaker.

“We’d met several times and we followed each other on Instagram,” she explains. “Last year I posted that I was gonna go see Beyoncé at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium. And he messaged me saying, ‘Do you want to come to the show as a VIP?’ I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it might be fun, but I wasn’t sure it was for real. I thought, worst case scenario, nothing’s lost as I have a ticket anyway, so I agreed. We had a few drinks, hung out, and the rest is history.”

And Beyoncé isn’t the only A-lister who played a role in the story of their romance. “Mike is a huge Bruce Springsteen fan,” says Marisha. “And early on in our relationship I had a free ticket to his show, so I invited Mike and it continued to grow from there. Beyoncé brought me Mike, and Bruce brought him me. I really believe that.”

Mike, who Marisha describes as “very, very English”, has an 11-year-old daughter and the singer says seeing them together makes her realise that he’s The One. “The thing that really attracts me to him is how amazing a dad he is,” she says. “He loves his daughter so much and really takes care of her. And how he takes care of his little girl is indicative of how he will treat me.”

Marisha, who has been married before, doesn’t rule out getting hitched again – or having babies. "Mike and I are taking it day by day and I ask myself if I want to get married again… but hopefully there’s an engagement on the cards. And when you meet the right person you start thinking you might want kids. I’m feeling broody right now, so let’s see.”

It was while on Celebrity Big Brother that Marisha says she realised just how much Mike meant to her. “Being there made me realise how much I loved him,” she recalls. “In that house you’re just there with your thoughts and I just felt it. That show was like 10 years of therapy in two weeks. You had to sit with your feelings. That’s why emotions are so heightened in there. There’s no real outlet to vent.”

Indeed the show did prove particularly emotional for one housemate. Ekin-Su Culculoglu, a red hot favourite to win, was evicted and found herself facing a backlash from the public after she called Marisha “fake”, during nominations. She subsequently refused to come to the final. Looking back, Marisha is philosophical and doesn’t hold any grudges.

“We all have moments when we’re not our best selves” she says, “And I think Ekin-Su should’ve maybe taken a break after all the shows she was doing, before coming on Big Brother. She said so herself. Ultimately being kind and compassionate is the best way.”

With CBB now behind her, Marisha can look forward to her biggest gig yet, a solo show at London’s Adelphi Theatre in March next year. “It’s gonna be amazing,” she teases. “I’ll have a full band, loads of friends coming to sing with me, it’s going to be a celebration of my journey, and I can’t wait.”

Tickets for Marisha’s solo show at The Adelphi Theatre on March 11th 2025, are on sale now, via cuffeandtaylor.com