Comic on why he was initially reluctant to work with his wife Rosie

Chris and Rosie Ramsey have forged a successful career together, thanks to their hit podcast and subsequent TV series.

But Chris says he long tried to keep his wife out of the comedy spotlight – and neither of them would reveal their marriage fear of a ‘nasty’ backlash.

Before their Shagged Married Annoyed podcast took off, Chris had the more successful career, touring as a stand-up and having taken part in Strictly Come Dancing.

Speaking on the Dish podcast, Rosie, who was a radio presenter, recalls initially wanting to keep her more famous husband a secret.

She said: ‘I never mentioned that I was married to Chris… you didn’t want me in the limelight because it can be a bit nasty sometimes.’

Chris confirmed: ‘People become horrible. You get the odd comment, you get the odd thing, you know,’ before turning to his wife to say: ‘You’re the love of my life, right, and I wanted to protect you.’

‘Are you drunk?’ Rosie joked.

But her husband continued: ‘I knew how rough this industry can be at times, and I just wanted to protect you from it.

‘But then we’re both in it together now and it’s actually really lovely having your partner… like, I’m not just with a co-host who I think, oh, they’ve probably got my back. I know she’s got my back. Do you know what I mean?’

Rosie agreed: ‘I don’t think I could do it without you,’ prompting Chris to say ‘I thought you were gonna say, I don’t think I’ve got your back.'

‘Yeah. I would throw you under the bus tomorrow,’ Rosie joked. 

Rosie also told hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett how she gets annoyed by Chris testing stand-up material on her.

‘[It’s] awful,’ she said: ‘He’ll just come up with something, We’ll be chatting and I’ll laugh and he – I see it in his face, I can just see his eyes light up and he goes, "she found that funny". 

‘Next day I’ll hear him tell me mam, she’ll laugh. Then we’ll be at a party, you’ll tell a group of people, they’ll laugh, and then you’ll just tell, probably about 20 people and then I’ll watch it on stage in his next show. 

‘By the time you get to the tour - no disrespect - I don’t laugh that much, I’ve heard it so much. It’s just done.’

So she admitted she did fake laughs when in the audience – ‘especially now that people know who I am’ – so it looked liked she was finding his stand-up funny.

Chris added: ‘I always see the disappointment in her eyes when she hears us tell the anecdote to someone else.’

• Dish from Waitrose & Partners, hosted by Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett is available on all podcast providers now.

Published: 14 Jun 2023