Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez saw the funny side when they heard they had postponed their wedding - having not even booked a venue or planned a single thing.
The couple met in 2017 when Bury-born Gemma signed up to Strictly Come Dancing. The former Hollyoaks and Emmerdale star wasn’t partnered with the Spanish professional dancer. Instead, she made it all the way to the final of the BBC dance contest with Aljaž Škorjanec.
Gemma and Aljaž joined Gorka and former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke in the grand final alongside Debbie McGee and Giovanni Pernice, and eventual winners Joe McFadden and Katya Jones. But for Gemma and Gorka, romance didn’t blossom until they spent more time together on the show’s live tour.
READ MORE: Gorka Marquez says Gemma Atkinson is 'northern and tight' as they go shopping
When the string of arena shows came to an end, the pair confirmed their relationship and the following year, the loved-up couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Mia who turns three next month. And then on Valentine’s Day last year, Gorka got down on one knee and proposed with Gemma saying a big ‘yes!’
But Gemma has responded to claims the couple had postponed their wedding. “Gorka’s family are in Spain and the Spanish lockdown rules are quite strict at the minute and we want all of his family to be able to come,” the Hits Radio host told the Manchester Evening News. “So we are umming and ahing with doing it in Spain or doing it in Manchester so we’re thinking maybe next July. We’re just not sure over here or in Spain yet.
“We’re just waiting to see what works best for all his family. None of them speak English so I at least want them to be able to order a drink which they won’t be able to do. They’re from Bilboa and we’ve not been over a lot really.”
She added: “But I think it’s because we’re so good how we are. We’re not in rush or under any pressure. It’s quite nice.” As for when they had reportedly postponed, Gemma says Gorka said to her; “Did we book somewhere?” to which she replied: “No, did you book somewhere?”
Gemma, Gorka and Mia are a very happy family of three, or five if you include Gemma’s beloved dogs Ollie and Norma, but they don’t think they’re done expanding their brood just yet.
The 37-year-old mum-of-one didn’t have the easiest of times in labour and previously said she thought she had ‘failed’ at childbirth. She needed an emergency C-section when doctors realised Mia's heart rate had dropped. And Gemma almost died when she lost nearly a litre of blood after suffering a haemorrhage.
“At first it did,” Gemma said whether her traumatic birth story had but her off wanting any more children. “I remember saying to Gorka when Mia was a day or so old, ‘I’m not doing this again because I’d be scared to death of it happening again’. But I don’t know if it’s nature's way of making you forget but not that I forget what happened but I think for me seeing Mia thrive and how she is, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat to have another little human.
“I get it when lads say there’s nothing more painful than being kicked in the balls because you’ll never hear another man saying, ‘Fancy kicking me in the balls again?’ but you’ll always get a woman saying, ‘Shall we have another baby?’ And I think that’s because we’re programmed to forget the pain and the reward of having your baby overshadows all of it.”
She added: “So we definitely we’ll definitely have more babies one day, hopefully.” And Gemma has no plans to leave Greater Manchester. “I think I’ll always live in Manchester my whole life,” she told us. “We always joke that Gorka is now a ‘Spancunion’ with a Spanish-Man twang. But I just love the city. I love the people, I love the northern values and the work ethic up here.
“A lot of people do ask me because I’ve obviously lived in Manchester since I was born and when I left Hollyoaks, the first thing people said to me was ‘are you moving to London? Are you going to live in London?’ And London was the last palace I wanted to live. In my opinion, it was too busy, too expensive and too far down south.”
Gemma instead chose to stay at home and travel to where the work was. ”I’ve still got the same four girlfriends who I went to primary school with. They’re married now and have children of their own but we’re godparents to each other’s kids and still see each other and it’s just nice still go in your local shops and see people who you’ve known all your life and all the parks where you’d go and have your Mad Dog 20/20 when we were younger. I wouldn’t want to be away from any of that.”
As for work, Gemma is as busy as ever. As well as hosting the drive time slot across the Hits Radio Network alongside Mike Toolan, she is working on more exciting plans with Manchester fashion brand, In The Style. She recently released her one clothing collection after two leisure and gym wear drops. And there’s more to come over the summer with plans for Mia to also be involved later in the year.
She’ll also be spending more time on-screen presenting on Channel 4 show Steph’s Packed Lunch and Gemma also recently joined Cbeebies’ The Toddler Club with episodes still to come throughout the year.
So does this mean Gemma has permanently swapped acting for presenting? “To be honest, it depends what comes in,” she said. “There’s presenting jobs that I’ve been asked to do that I’ve not done and with Hollyoaks, it was so great to go back. It was just four days of filming, only the one episode but I just love the fact that the presenting is live and it’s kind of quite nerve-wracking.
“I’d never say never to acting again. I would love to act again. If a series or drama came in I’d absolutely do it but I think I wouldn’t want to do a soap long-term again. It’s such a gruelling schedule, sometimes six days, eight until eight and I did that for the first 17 years of my career so it’s nice to be at home now.”
