Hidden among the leafy lanes of Temple Guiting, the 12th century splendour of St Mary’s Church is a picturesque spot for a wedding.
The honeyed colour of the tower (rebuilt in the 17th century) is reflected in the hue of the Cotswold stone of the nearby cottages, each of them as chocolate-box pretty as the next.
‘This beautiful, historic church boasts stunning architecture and a peaceful atmosphere, creating a truly memorable backdrop for your special day,’ declares Guides for Brides, the online bible of bridal venues.
Official listings for the church, founded around the year 1170 by the Knights Templar, boast of its ‘friendly, open-minded’ welcome.
Well, ring the bells and book the organist: St Mary’s might be gearing up for its biggest, brightest, most sequin-clad, bow-bedecked wedding yet.
Because, as the Daily Mail has exclusively discovered this week, the parents of one of this Gloucestershire village’s best-known sons are contemplating the possibility of imminent nuptials… at this very church.
Maybe sooner than anyone expected.
And what a match made in reality TV heaven those nuptials would be – uniting 32-year-old Love Islander Chris Hughes (son of local farmer Paul and his wife Valerie) and his American singing, dancing, all-round social media star girlfriend JoJo Siwa, perhaps the most successful child performer of the 21st century.
Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa met on Celebrity Big Brother in April – and already there’s talk of a wedding
Official listings for St Mary’s Church, founded around the year 1170 by the Knights Templar, boast of its ‘friendly, open-minded’ welcome
JoJo was something of a lesbian poster girl, having come out aged 17 by posting a photo to Instagram of her wearing a T-shirt that read: ‘Best Gay Cousin Ever’
The couple, as followers of the love story of the summer will know, met on Celebrity Big Brother, in April, when JoJo, 22, was in a relationship with 27-year-old non-binary Australian influencer Kath Ebbs.
It was complicated, to say the least.
There was an almighty backlash in the gay community, not only in support for the very aggrieved and humiliated Ebbs, but also over JoJo’s apparent shift in sexuality, which was seen almost as a betrayal.
JoJo was, after all, something of a lesbian poster girl, having come out aged 17 (and as Nickelodeon’s biggest star) by posting a photo to Instagram of her wearing a T-shirt that read ‘Best Gay Cousin Ever’, before going to bed.
She since told the Daily Mail she felt pressured into calling herself a lesbian, and felt ‘boxed in’ by the label, when in reality, she didn’t ever care about gender in relationships.
Since then, save for a brief bit of sniping from Ebbs – who told a podcast that ‘the person who used to be my support system has turned against me’ – JoJo and Chris have been most publicly smitten.
She’s prepared him strawberries cut into hearts and has become a Walker’s crisp-loving, tea-swigging part-time Brit, while he’s introduced her to sausages, mash, fry-ups and – most importantly – his family.
They’ve both been talking marriage and children, most recently on a podcast this week, where JoJo gushed: ‘I’m happy, I’ve never wanted the future so bad. I’ve never, ever wanted the love that I have to just continue to grow.
JoJo and potential father-in-law Paul on adjacent leather sofas, her with a cushion stuffed inside her t-shirt and a cup of tea resting on the resulting paunch, mirroring his pose
The couple have both been talking marriage and children, most recently on a podcast this week, where JoJo gushed: ‘I’m happy, I’ve never wanted the future so bad. I’ve never, ever wanted the love that I have to just continue to grow’
‘I’ve never protected a love that I have so much. I’ve never cared about another person so much.
‘I’ve never craved a wedding. I’ve always wanted to just sign a piece of paper or go to Vegas… but now I’m like: “No, I want a ring and I want my dad to walk me down the aisle and I want a first dance and I want butterflies…”‘
Gulp. It all sounds like things have got very serious, very quickly.
And back in Temple Guiting, where Chris and his older brother Ben and their three half-brothers grew up, just over the road from that church, no one could sound happier than proud prospective in-laws Paul and Valerie.
Paul, 68, was in fabulous spirits when the Daily Mail called on him and Val, 73, at their beautiful stone cottage earlier this week.
There was a very British mud-splattered Range Rover parked on the driveway as Paul chatted with delight about JoJo, who found fame as a child on the American reality TV show Dance Moms.
‘JoJo is a lovely down-to-earth girl and she and Chris just hit it off from the moment they met on Celebrity Big Brother in April,’ he says, with a twinkle.
‘It wouldn’t surprise us if they got married before Christmas, we’ve got St Mary’s Church just over the lane from us which would be perfect.’
Contrary to what some might expect, Chris, whose exes include fellow Love Islander Olivia Attwood and Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson, hasn’t had a lot of girlfriends, his father insists.
He was single when he entered the Big Brother house, having being a free agent since splitting from professional golfer Annabel Dimmock in 2022.
‘Chris brought JoJo to meet us more or less as soon as they finished the show and she’s come to stay at the weekends a few times since then,’ says Paul.
‘Even though they live together on the outskirts of London, they like to come home here and relax.
‘She’s a lot of fun and just mucks in.’
She also makes a mean cup of tea, apparently, which helps.
The evidence of this is clear for all to see on JoJo’s Facebook account, on which she has shared several videos filmed at Christopher’s (as she calls him) family home, including one particular gem, in which she sits chatting to Paul.
There they are, on adjacent leather sofas, her with a cushion stuffed inside her t-shirt and a cup of tea resting on the resulting paunch, mirroring his own pose.
And they’ve certainly been dropping enough clues about how they feel on the potential wedding.
JoJo wants a baby-blue colour scheme and to have control over the playlist (‘otherwise it’ll be all songs I don’t know,’ as she said in a Fabulous magazine interview last week).
Chris, meanwhile, appeared on the cover of the same magazine in July, and boldly declared: ‘I’d love to marry her. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I run through scenarios of our wedding day.
‘We’d have a proper English wedding and I can imagine her in a full wedding dress. We both want kids. We come from loving families. My mum loves her.’
On Wednesday this week, JoJo posted a photograph of that very same front cover with the headline ‘I dream about our wedding day’ on her social media, with a three word caption, ‘I do too’.
Will Paul’s wife Val, a beautiful blonde country woman, soon be needing a new hat?
Watch this space.
Paul, an affable chap who says Chris used to help him on the land he has farmed for the past 32 years before a job in a local law firm and then Love Island beckoned, welcomes the idea of a press pack descending on the village to cover the nuptials.
The locals, he says, ‘would love it’.
‘And anyway, I got used to being something of a celebrity when I was a professional wrestler in my 20s. Being in the limelight doesn’t bother me.
‘My wrestling name was Hari Kari and I used to appear in places like Cheltenham Town Hall. I gave up when I got too old.’
What interesting conversations he and his prospective daughter-in-law must have.
JoJo (real name Joelle Joanie Siwa) was born in the small Midwestern city of Omaha, Nebraska, and was nine when she was propelled to fame, alongside her dance teacher mother Jessalynn.
By the time she was 15 she was presiding over a billion-dollar business (she was signed by US children’s TV channel Nickelodeon aged 13) and sold 90 million of her iconic hair bows to children across the world.
At 16 she became the youngest person to headline at London’s O2 arena – to a sell-out crowd.
She’s estimated to have racked up a £14.9million fortune from TV and commercial work and has a vast social media following.
Until earlier this year, she was also the owner of a mansion in the Los Angeles suburb of Tarzana that makes the Hughes family home look like a doll house.
She bought the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom pad for $3.43million when she was 16 and fitted it out with various ‘JoJo’ touches, including a grand piano, mannequins dressed in her tour outfits and a ‘fun room’, complete with slushie dispenser and pizza warmer.
The house was on the market for $4million when she moved to a three-bed rental apartment in nearby Encino, prior to sale, in February this year.
As for her side of the family, Chris has already met them, and gets on famously with them all.
JoJo’s parents Tom, a chiropractor, and former ‘momager’ Jessalynn live in a house their daughter bought for them and her 25-year-old brother Jayden, a real estate agent, who is planning his own wedding next year.
As JoJo revealed in an interview last weekend, Chris has already been asked to be a groomsman at Jayden’s wedding, while JoJo, naturally, is a bridesmaid.
‘I love how he loves my family,’ she said. ‘I’m actually convinced he loves my family more than me!’
Chris, too, has been effusive about the prospective in-laws.
‘I’ve never felt more comfortable with people,’ he said in July after spending three days with them in Florida. ‘We were like one big happy family.
‘Last time they were in London, I messaged the family group chat, saying, “Tom, do you want to go to the spa with me?” So we did that, then we had a few beers and played Nintendo together.’
The affection is, apparently, mutual. Jessalynn and Valerie follow each other on social media, although they haven’t met in person just yet.
Paul tells the Daily Mail he’s sure it will happen soon, however.
Val’s feelings on the love match were clear when Chris shared images of himself and JoJo, in their finery, attending the wedding of friends last weekend.
‘You both look absolutely gorgeous. Proud,’ she chipped in, with a kiss emoji.
It makes their time in the Big Brother house already seem a very long time ago.
JoJo’s experience was tricky from the start. Two days in, she had a bruising encounter with 72-year-old actor Mickey Rourke, who grilled her about her sexuality, then told her: ‘If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay any more.’
He subsequently announced his intention to ‘vote the lesbian out’, before he was warned by the show’s producers about his behaviour and ultimately kicked out himself.
But by then all eyes were on JoJo and Chris, whose magnetic connection was soon picked up by viewers.
By day 16, JoJo told another contestant she now felt she was queer rather than a lesbian. And when she broke up with Ebbs somewhat awkwardly at the show’s wrap party, it fuelled the flames still further.
But, even as they went on holiday to Mexico together, JoJo and Chris insisted they were nothing more than ‘platonic soulmates’.
Until, of course, they weren’t.
Back in Gloucestershire, Paul and Valerie insist they have no problem whatsoever with JoJo’s relationship history, or indeed her sexuality.
‘We’re not bothered about that, it’s how she gets on with Chris that counts,’ says Paul in his no-nonsense farmer’s way.
Bells may be chiming over the road very soon.
