She’s a media golden girl – named the UK’s top female influencer by The Sunday Times, appearing on TV shows including Strictly and signing lucrative endorsements with brands like Primark.
So when Saffron Barker, 25, recently started dating a new man there was huge interest among her fans – who was he and was it serious?
Fast forward nine months and the answers are widely known: he is Josh Miln, a male model from Scotland, and, yes, it’s very serious – to the extent that Saffron soon astounded fans by giving up what had been seen as her ‘forever home’ in her hometown of Brighton to move with him to Dubai.
And this has sparked a new question among her fans: is Josh’s influence on Saffron entirely healthy? The suggestion that it might not be has been swirling ever louder in recent weeks – prompting The Daily Mail to investigate.
The suggestion that all is not quite as well as she makes it seem initially came from viewer comments as Saffron documented her move to the desert kingdom to her vast army of social media followers: 2.4 million on YouTube, 2.2 million on TikTok and 2 million on Instagram.
In one video, for example, Saffron and Josh, 24, who is Scottish but grew up in Dubai, are filmed talking while driving in a car.
He says: ‘Since I went back in 2017, I said to myself I always want to go back. I love the heat, I love the culture, I just love everything about the Middle East. And I just think moving here with the love of my life being able to be this lucky to choose where we want to live, oh I’m just so excited.’
Saffron, looking somewhat uncomfortable and bemused replies: ‘It’s gonna be a good time. We will always come back to the UK. This is just while we are young. Josh was always going to move to Dubai, but he stayed in the UK because of me.’
Saffron Barker, 25, and her boyfriend Josh Miln, 24, have recently moved to Dubai – but fans have raised alarm bells over the decision
Saffron, who has more than two million followers on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, started dating model Josh in 2024
Saffron has been posting on YouTube since 2015, when she was just 15 years old, and became a household name when she was announced as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2019
One user reposted the video with the caption: ‘Awkward moment Saffron tells Josh she doesn’t want to stay in Dubai forever.’
One user commented: ‘Is it me or is she internally screaming for help lol,’ while another added: ‘It’s quite clear he’s making her move. She’s always dreamt of living in the US, now with him it’s Dubai? Yeah there’s some controlling behaviours going on no doubt.’
Another added: ‘Her eyes say it all, she’s a family girl she would never want to live away from them.’
Another video shows the couple looking around a swanky apartment they hope to rent which overlooks a private swimming pool and offers stunning views of the Dubai skyline.
One post read: ‘People are saying she’s doing it for him but maybe LA put her off because of the scary robbery x.’
Another alleged: ‘Her money is paying for it all…she wanted to go to LA to pursue her own dreams, now changing all that for what he wants.’
And there has been plenty more in the same vein. So what do those closest to Saffron say in response?
We found that they were uniformly furious at what they describe as the ‘creepy’ comments – and adamant that Saffron is happy and in full control of her life plans.
One very close friend of Saffron’s told The Daily Mail: ‘What people are saying on social media is absolute nonsense. Yes, she had to be talked into going to Dubai by Josh because it was his idea but she’s having a great time and loving every minute of it.
‘Obviously she needed a bit of persuasion because Saffron has never lived anywhere else apart from Brighton and is very close to her family. But both she and Josh are very happy there and there’s simply no truth in any of the claims that she doesn’t want to be there.
‘As for the fact that she’s bank rolling him, well that’s also total rubbish.’
Another friend added: ‘Saffron has no plans to settle down permanently in Dubai and made this clear from the outset.
‘This is an adventure and she’s having a great time with Josh, it’s very exciting for both of them.
‘Once they get a bit more established, they plan to divide their time between Dubai and Brighton. But at some point, in the future she plans to return to the UK and settle down and hopes that it’s with him. That’s her plan and nothing has changed.’
A third told us: ‘When you have as many followers as Saffron does you come under a kind of micro scrutiny which blows up every little thing. This is a classic example – there’s simply no truth in the suggestion she’s not in the driving seat of her own life and career. That’s just not who she is.’
Saffron’s parents Darren and Wendy similarly appear to be sanguine about the Dubai move and have already visited their daughter and Josh as they go about carving out a new life in the Gulf state.
Saffron has been documenting her move to Dubai, and friends have said she is having a ‘great time and loving every minute of it’ despite being initially apprehensive about it
‘Obviously she needed a bit of persuasion because Saffron has never lived anywhere else apart from Brighton and is very close to her family,’ one source said
Fans pointed to a recent video Saffron filmed with Josh while they went apartment hunting as proof that she did not plan to stay in Dubai long-term
One source said: ‘It’s total rubbish to suggest that she doesn’t want to be there (Dubai). Darren and Wendy had an amazing time in Dubai and loved hanging out with Saffron and Josh.’
Saffron previously dated Welsh rugby player Louis Rees-Zammit but the pair split in March 2024, shortly after he quit ruby for American football. She then started dating Josh, a model after messaging him on social media.
Last year, it was widely believed that Saffron would leave the UK for Los Angeles after undertaking an acting course there.
But it is understood that she decided against relocating to the US after she and Josh were victims of a robbery while holiday in the country earlier this year.
The pair were travelling along route 66 from LA to Las Vegas when they stopped off at the famous Peggy Sue’s diner. They returned to find that their vehicle had been smashed up with all their belongings gone.
Speaking about her ‘nightmare’ holiday in a YouTube video she said: ‘We keep saying how lucky we are, we could have been held at gun point.
‘These people could have been following us. I think honestly it happens quite often at Peggy Sue’s.
‘I know for a fact that if Josh had walked out and seen it you would have gone over there, and they have guns and stuff here.
‘So, we are also very, very grateful that nothing like that happened to us and neither of us are hurt.’
Josh added: ‘There were tourists everywhere, and apparently this happens almost every day.
It’s crazy that there are no warning signs.’
Saffron’s rise to fame began when she was just 15 years old and her YouTube channel – which she began after her girl band career fell apart, leaving her ‘distraught’ – took off in a big way.
Her following grew exponentially as viewers couldn’t get enough of the bubbly, relatable teenager, and she became a household name when she was named as a contestant on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.
Fame was an unexpected outcome, Saffron told This Morning in 2020 as she opened up about her career as a successful YouTuber.
‘I started this four years ago, when I started I was actually in high school and when I started I never knew it could be a real job,’ she said.
‘It was a hobby, I loved doing it, I loved creating content videos and I’ve always wanted to entertain other people in some way.’
Aside from Strictly, Saffron has also appeared as a contestant on comedian Michael McIntyre’s BBC game show The Wheel and on E4’s The Read Dirty Dancing – the latter of which she won alongside dance partner Lee Ryan.
In 2023, she appeared in the fifth series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Hunted and was paired up with Bobby Seagull. The pair lost after the Hunters received information on their whereabouts from a member of the public.
