Nathan King and Rosie Williams entered the Big Brother house last month with no plans to leave as a couple or search for romance.
Instead, the pair unexpectedly developed one of the series’ most surprising relationships, beginning with a private conversation during a fire drill and growing into a full-blown romance before the final.
Speaking together for the first time since the final, Nathan, 24, and Rosie, 29 — affectionately known on the show as Baked Potato — have opened up to MailOnline about the pressure they felt after viewers accused them of creating a ‘showmance.’
They admitted that trying to conceal their feelings from the other housemates made their behaviour appear awkward at times, particularly while knowing that cameras were capturing their every interaction.
Nathan said: ‘It was a bit mad. Obviously, there were a lot of negative things, but I find it quite funny. When we came out and people started talking about a showmance, I was genuinely shocked because I couldn’t believe anyone saw it that way.
Rosie, whom Nathan fondly nicknamed ‘Baked Tattie’, added: ‘I thought that because we’re quite awkward people — especially me — why would anyone think it was fake? Why would somebody behave like that deliberately? If we had been trying to create something, surely we would have done it better?’
Big Brother stars Nathan King and Rosie Williams have spoken about the strain of facing claims that their romance was a ‘showmance’
Their unexpected romance began with a private conversation during a fire evacuation before developing into a relationship by the end of the series
Nathan continued: ‘We know it wasn’t fake, so if that’s what people want to say, they can carry on saying it.
‘I’m not normally very good at discussing my feelings. When you’re on television, you suddenly remember that you’re being watched, and opening up becomes even harder. I think people have to take that into consideration.’
Rosie agreed, joking: ‘If we had been trying to manufacture something, I think we would have made it a lot more exciting!’
The former dental administrator said the days after her eviction were particularly difficult, as she was immediately confronted with questions about whether her relationship with Nathan was genuine.
Nathan revealed that he was also deeply affected when Rosie was evicted through the controversial Vault twist. In an unseen moment, he said he broke down in tears alone in the Store Room.
Rosie said: ‘I was really struggling during the week I came out. I was completely taken aback that this was even being questioned. I expected to be asked about lots of other things, but not that.
‘I never thought Nathan was playing a game. After being in the house with him for so long, there was no part of me that wondered whether he might be acting or whether the viewers were right. I knew completely that wasn’t true.
‘Nathan later told me that after I was evicted, he was in the Store Room crying.’
In their first interview together since the final, Nathan said they know their relationship ‘isn’t false’, particularly because he admits he struggles to express his emotions
Rosie said the questions about her relationship were ‘really hard’ to deal with after her shock eviction and praised Nathan for helping her find humour in the situation
Nathan said: ‘I was. They didn’t show it. Production actually called my mum that day and told her I was having a really difficult time and that it wasn’t like me. They said I had been upset in the Store Room but was fine again, cooking with Emma or something similar.
‘That never made the show. Then you watch Late and Live and hear people say, ”He doesn’t care, he’s already moved on.” Of course I had a couple of difficult days. But if I had spent the entire week looking miserable, people would probably have criticised me for that too, saying I needed to get a grip because I would see Rosie again soon.’
Rosie added: ‘What I wanted most in the house was reassurance from my mum that I was doing the right thing. When I left, I needed that same reassurance from Nathan — someone who understood that the best thing was simply to ignore the negativity.
‘When he wasn’t there, everything suddenly felt overwhelming. People had warned me not to search for negative comments, but I wasn’t looking for them. They just kept appearing in front of me.’
She said the online reaction became so intense that she sometimes felt detached from herself.
‘There were moments when I felt like I was dissociating because I thought I had done everything wrong. The happy, warm experience I had in the house didn’t seem to have been shown.
‘If I had genuinely had a terrible time, then fine, that would have been my experience. But I had an amazing time with a group of incredibly kind and genuine people.’
Nathan said Rosie’s departure through the controversial Vault twist left him equally upset, leading to an unseen breakdown in the Store Room
Nathan said he had made his interest in pursuing a relationship outside the house obvious, while the pair finally discussed their feelings during a fire drill
Nathan and Rosie said many of their conversations with other housemates were left out of the main programme as their romance became a central storyline
Rosie added: ‘And if you’re going to say something unkind, at least stand by it. Don’t say one thing and then immediately change your mind by claiming you loved me after all. Have an opinion and stick with it.’
Nathan said: ‘I can take criticism. People can say whatever they want about me as long as they’re funny. My mum told me she once had to switch off Late and Live because they were being particularly brutal about me.
‘I understand what I signed up for, and I can handle it. But what bothers me more is when people are harsh behind your back and then act friendly to your face.’
Rosie said she would not pretend the comments had no effect on her.
‘Of course it upset me, but I can deal with it. The hardest part is hearing completely different versions of events when you aren’t there to defend yourself and have no idea what is being shown.’
After fans described Rosie’s eviction as unfair, she revealed that her father had been contacted to record an audio message much earlier than viewers might have expected. The revelation led both housemates to question whether the Vault twist had been added at short notice.
Rosie explained: ‘I was facing eviction that night. The following day, they asked my dad to send in an audio message. He initially said he wasn’t sure he wanted to do it if I was going home because it would be a waste of time.
‘They told him that the next challenge would be based on votes to win and that I was nowhere near the bottom.’
Nathan said they wondered whether producers had ‘moved the goalposts’ after receiving a revealing message from Hanah Haji’s friends about her relationship with Segun Shodipo. He suggested the format may have been altered to include an element of luck, because housemates such as himself would not have chosen Rosie to enter the Vault.
Nathan and Rosie were reunited at the live final, where Nathan finished in fifth place. However, he said he was caught off guard when his exit interview focused heavily on whether their romance was authentic.
He said: ‘When I came out, I was ecstatic. I was shouting, full of adrenaline and having the time of my life. Then I sat down for the interview and felt as though they immediately started challenging me about showmances.
‘It completely deflated me. I started wondering what had been said. Had Rosie come out and decided I was awful? Had she said the whole thing was an act? I suddenly had no idea what was going on.
‘The moment they used the word showmance, I was thrown. I could see Rosie sitting there and was thinking, ”What has she said? What have people been saying?” It left me confused and, in a way, ruined the interview.’
Looking back on his final week without Rosie, Nathan said Emma Morgan — with whom he formed a close friendship in the house — provided crucial support.
He said: ‘I had spent so much time with Rosie and Emma that the three of us were almost always together. When Rosie left, I felt lost and was obviously upset that night.
‘Emma really stepped up. She made a huge effort to check that I was all right and tried to make me laugh. Emma is naturally hilarious — I only have to look at her and I start laughing.’
Once their romance became public, Nathan and Rosie stopped holding back and explored their connection in the house before making the relationship official
Although viewers saw several kisses between them, the couple said they tried to avoid obvious public displays of affection around the other housemates
Nathan said Emma Morgan was a major source of comfort during his final week in the house after Rosie had left
Only hours after Rosie’s eviction, Nathan was sent back into the Vault and told he could face eviction again as part of another dramatic twist.
He said: ‘I was upset that first night and, predictably, drank some red wine. The next day they sent me back into the Vault and I was absolutely furious. I thought, ”If they’ve brought me back here and I’m not leaving through that door, they’re deliberately trying to wind me up.”
‘Then they did exactly that. They definitely knew it would annoy me.’
Although the housemates were ultimately told they were finalists, Nathan said Emma’s presence was his main comfort.
‘At least I still had Emma. If both Rosie and Emma had gone, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I would have had to attach myself to somebody who might not have wanted that.
‘Having Emma there made everything easier, although I kept saying how much I wished Rosie could have been there for the final with us.’
Viewers also saw Nathan grow closer to Ali Bromley during the final week.
While he said he still respected Ali, Nathan admitted that his opinion of her had changed since leaving the show.
He said: ‘Ali and I got on very well in the house. We had some brilliant conversations. After leaving, I heard that she had spoken about almost everyone, although I don’t think she said anything negative about me in the Diary Room, which was nice.
‘However, she did make some comments about Rosie, and that made me view her slightly differently. There was a point early in the series when I questioned everything I thought I knew about Ali. I later went to her and apologised for what I had said in the Diary Room because I wasn’t sure it was fair.’
‘But the more I reflect on it, the more I wonder whether my initial impression may have been right. It was suggested that Ali had been isolated by the group, but I want to be clear that nobody in the house shut her out. Ali chose to isolate herself.
‘There were plenty of times when I invited her to sit with us or went over to spend time with her. She seemed to deliberately keep her distance, and I found that difficult to understand.’
The pair also discussed Lily Benson, one of the series’ most divisive housemates. They said they liked her and were not especially bothered by her messiness or habit of breaking rules, but felt viewers were not shown the full extent of how challenging she could be to live with.
During the opening week, there was little indication that Nathan and Rosie were becoming interested in each other. Nathan said their bond began to deepen after Ryan Bradshaw was evicted at the end of the first week.
After making their relationship official, Nathan told Rosie he loved her one day before she faced a live eviction, when she was shocked to hear boos from the crowd
Rosie survived that eviction but was upset by the reaction from the crowd before her eventual exit, while Nathan later learned the boos were reportedly aimed at him
Rosie said she initially viewed Nathan simply as a friend, but began seeing him differently after watching him shrug off boos during the first live eviction.
Nathan said: ‘She seemed completely mad in the best possible way and was incredibly fun. I realised she had the same sense of humour as me, which is unusual and immediately earned her a big tick.
‘After the first week, especially around that first Friday eviction, we began spending more time together. That’s when I thought, ”She really is my kind of person.”’
Nathan said he had made his interest in pursuing a relationship outside the house ‘glaringly obvious’, but they only had a chance to discuss their feelings when the house was evacuated after a fire alarm.
They did not realise their microphones were still recording. Part of the conversation was later shown on Late and Live in a dramatic episode that exposed their romance for the first time.
Rosie said: ‘We were outside the main house, and I had originally been told that the microphones couldn’t pick up beyond a certain point. I thought we were deliberately going somewhere private because nothing would be recorded.
‘We were in another building, away from the house, so I assumed there was no microphone there.’
Nathan added: ‘We had wanted to talk about it, but I was worried about saying something on camera and getting it completely wrong. If I had told Rosie I liked her and asked whether we should move forward, only for her to say I had misunderstood everything, I would have been mortified.
‘Because we thought nobody was listening, we felt there was less risk. We thought that even if we had misunderstood one another, nobody would ever see it. But, of course, they did.’
Rosie said the brief clip did not capture the entire conversation.
‘That was only one part of what we discussed. Because we were so far away, I don’t think the rest was picked up.’
The couple had tried to keep their relationship hidden from the other housemates, but their secret was exposed after they shared a quick kiss during a night of drinking two days later.
Rosie said Nathan eventually told her that the entire house already knew after she returned from the Diary Room. At first, they had been reluctant to discuss their romance because they did not want to make their fellow housemates uncomfortable.
Nathan said: ‘I don’t tend to overthink things. Rosie was more concerned about how the other housemates would react than how the public would respond. I kept saying they wouldn’t care, and they really didn’t seem as bothered as she expected.
Rosie added: ‘If I saw people behaving like that in front of me, I would probably say, ”Get a room.” That’s why I was always checking that nobody was walking in.
‘I didn’t want to be disrespectful. I would find it irritating if people behaved that way in front of me.
‘I was also thinking about my parents watching and wondering what I was doing, because it wasn’t how they normally saw me. At the same time, I really liked Nathan and didn’t want to keep telling myself not to act on it.
‘I was trying to balance being considerate with following my feelings, and I don’t think I handled it perfectly.
‘Unfortunately, the edit made it appear worse than it was. A lot of the context was removed, so the situation looked stranger than it really was.’
Nathan and Rosie said that many of their conversations with the other housemates never appeared in the main programme, while their affectionate moments became one of the season’s biggest storylines.
Viewers also watched the pair play a series of mischievous pranks on each other. Rosie said the games were largely an attempt to distract themselves from the long periods of downtime inside the house.
After agreeing to make their relationship official, Nathan told Rosie he loved her just one day before she faced eviction. She was stunned when the live audience booed her.
Rosie survived that vote, which resulted in Lily and Khaled Khaled leaving the show, but said the reaction left her visibly distressed. Nathan later learned that the crowd had apparently been booing him rather than Rosie.
Rosie said: ‘I was having some kind of existential crisis because I didn’t understand what was happening. I don’t even think much of that conversation was shown.
‘I assumed my discussions had been left out because they were strange or a bit unusual. I began thinking, ”People don’t like the fact that I’m odd.”
‘But then I couldn’t understand how Khaled and Lily, who had received such a positive reaction, could leave while I was still there being booed. I wondered whether I was staying for the wrong reasons and whether people wanted me there for something I hadn’t realised I was doing.’
Nathan said he would have understood a negative reaction to him.
‘If I had been booed, I would probably have known why. There were plenty of possible reasons, whether it was my views on Nigel Farage or simply the fact that I tend to be very direct.
Since leaving the house, Nathan and Rosie have challenged the doubters by travelling to meet each other’s families
Nathan and Rosie said they liked Lily overall but felt viewers did not see how difficult she could be to live with
The couple went on holiday together days after leaving the house and have also discussed their hopes of working in radio
‘But Rosie didn’t know why she was being booed, which made it so confusing for her. I would have simply thought, ”You don’t like me — fine, carry on.”
‘Rosie is such a lovely person, so I couldn’t understand why anyone was booing her. Since leaving, I’ve realised it was probably because of me — but if that’s the case, direct it at me rather than attacking Rosie.’
In the weeks since leaving Big Brother, Nathan and Rosie have continued their relationship and quickly travelled to meet one another’s families, proving their critics wrong.
Nathan’s right-wing political views differ from those of Rosie’s mother, whom Rosie describes as a left-wing socialist. However, Nathan said he had already won over her family and that they had sensibly avoided lengthy political debates.
Rosie praised Nathan for helping her cope with the social media reaction and the scrutiny surrounding their romance.
She said: ‘It’s been amazing. It’s comforting not to feel as though we’re constantly being watched anymore. I’ve always found this sort of attention difficult, so having someone who can laugh about it has helped me enormously.
‘It’s hard to explain the experience to people who haven’t lived through it. When I came out and saw how things had been presented, I kept thinking, ”I wasn’t expecting this.”
‘That first week was the hardest because I felt nobody would believe my version of events after seeing the programme.
‘I told Nathan not to look at the comments, but he did anyway. Then he found one saying he should have his feet amputated and was laughing so much.’
‘I sometimes get more upset when the comments are aimed at him because I know that isn’t who he is. He just laughs them off.
Because they live a considerable distance apart, Nathan and Rosie said they hope to move in together eventually
‘He’s been incredibly helpful, although it can feel exhausting to constantly explain yourself. I like expressing my views, but sometimes you wonder why you should keep defending yourself when we know we’re happy and our relationship is good.’
Nathan said he was amused by much of the criticism and was grateful that Rosie had been beside him.
‘I do find it funny when people criticise me. Leaving the show was strange, but having Rosie has made it so much better. I’m thrilled that I went into Big Brother expecting not to connect with anyone and came out with someone I love, as well as a best friend in Emma.
‘There is so much ahead of us. The experience didn’t end when we left on Friday — it really felt as though our life together had started.’
With their homes separated by a significant distance, the couple said they are already discussing plans to move in together.
Nathan said: ‘We’re going to live together, aren’t we? That seems obvious. Being apart isn’t practical, and we want to spend more time together.
‘We haven’t decided where yet. Emma keeps telling us to move to Manchester, but we’ll work it out somewhere.’
Rosie added: ‘I have a dog and other practical things to consider, so I’m trying to work through the logistics. Saying it is easy, but we will do it — definitely.’
