It’s been one of the most talked-about relationships of recent years.
When British rapper Central Cee, 27, started dating middle-class influencer Madeline Argy, 25, in 2022, the internet went into meltdown.
Central Cee, real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su, is an edgy, west London-born rapper who sings about drugs, money and sex.
And now he had suddenly found love with the innocent-looking, home-schooled Madeline from West Sussex.
They were indeed polar opposites but couldn’t help themselves dropping a few clues for their followers that they were in a relationship three years ago.
They posted talking-to-camera videos from the same car and, in one clip, Maddy showed a glimpse of Central Cee’s heavily tattooed arms.
It didn’t take long for eagle-eyed followers to figure it out.
Rapper Central Cee, 27, and TikTok influencer Madeline Argy, 25, made an unlikely couple
Ms Argy, from West Sussex, developed her online following by making videos at university
Soon the couple began featuring on each other’s socials more often, getting photographed while out shopping together – with Central Cee even mentioning her in his songs.
In one hit, You & Me, thought to be about his relationship with Madeline, he references her education: ‘Well educated, good vocab, when I don’t understand, she explain the meaning.’
In another less flattering line, alluding to her bisexuality, he says: ‘When I said that my bitch was gay, I didn’t mean that s*** in a degrading way.’
But I can reveal all was not as it seemed.
For sources tell me that in fact part of their romance was a PR stunt to raise Central Cee’s profile and promote his new single, as well as launch Madeline to a wider audience.
One insider says: ‘They were definitely together in the beginning.
‘But then they saw how well their relationship did for their personal brands.
‘As a TikToker she brought him into the cultural mainstream, which is ideal for a rapper because that’s where the money is, and introduced all her young female fans to him which is gold dust.
‘Then he made her more down-to-earth and real than some nondescript middle-class girl moaning on social media. He gave her a “cool girl” edge.
‘When she started to be seen at those parties with her rapper boyfriend, suddenly people didn’t want to just watch her, they wanted to be her and that’s when she started landing major brand deals.’
Madeline was home-schooled for most of her childhood because of her anxiety.
She talks openly to her 9.6million followers on TikTok of her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and in July told her fans that she has stopped taking her ADHD medication, going ‘cold turkey’.
Her mother, Michaelina, was born with shortened arms due to a birth defect from thalidomide – a drug developed by a German pharmaceutical company in the late 1950s that was given to pregnant mothers to help with morning sickness, causing severe abnormalities in some babies.
She has since been awarded an MBE for her efforts to hold the German government accountable for its role in the scandal.
Madeline, meanwhile, attended the University of Kent in 2018, studying Forensic Linguistics – a degree she settled on after feeling inspired by an episode of American drama Criminal Minds.
And during her final year at university in 2021, like many Gen Zs stuck in lockdown, she started making TikToks.
The video that got her noticed came in July 2022 when she discussed the time her sister found a worm trapped in her leg.
Her mix of disarming candour, charm and no small dose of fascinated revulsion at worms burrowing below the skin helped the post gain half a million ‘likes’.
From there, she gained a following discussing everything from her bisexuality to her starting puberty at a young age – all in her winningly unpolished way.
‘Maybe I regret sharing some of the TMI [too much information] stuff,’ she admitted in a 2023 interview, ‘but nothing I’ve ever done in my personal life has made me a bad person. Some of it’s embarrassing and overly personal, but none of it was ever wrong. So what’s the worst that can happen?’
‘TMI’ could be applied to Central Cee’s content too, as he raps: ‘Sex, money, drugs I need all three.’
His route to fame, however, is markedly different.
Oakley began writing songs aged eight.
As a teenager, a traditional Saturday job wasn’t for him, lasting only three weeks working in a shoe shop.
He soon realised he could earn far more money dealing drugs.
‘Not having much, my mum’s hardships, I was taking them on myself, subconsciously,’ he’s said.
‘I wanted to take matters into my own hands.’
He began releasing music in 2014, and was picked up by other big UK rappers such as Dave and J Hus, who he then featured alongside on their albums.
By 2022 he had been nominated for three Brit Awards and four MOBOs, recognising ‘Music of Black Origin’.
Since then, he has appeared on the cover of Vogue, is regularly spotted on the front row of fashion-week catwalks, is one of the most decorated rappers of his generation and is thought to be worth £10million.
So how did his path cross with Home Counties Madeline?
To the outside world, they appear to mix in rather different circles, but they had in common the same talent agency.
It is one of the oldest wheezes in celebrity PR to seed speculation that two clients are romantically involved, something not lost on the pair’s more skeptical fans.
And since rumours began in 2023 that they were dating, they have been pictured together at basketball games, while shopping and in restaurants.
It’s understood their union at the beginning was genuine.
However, after Central Cee concocted a PR relationship with American female rapper Ice Spice, Madeline too was dragged into the drama.
That April, the rapper had suggested to his followers he was embarking on a collaboration with Ice Spice, 25, by posting two pictures of them in a studio without further explanation.
In July, the duo seemingly took a ride in a car around London.
Then they were then seen shopping together in Chrome Hearts, a luxury clothes retailer.
Just a few days after their shopping ‘date’, Central Cee and Ice Spice hung out again – this time, they were pictured in a nightclub lounge.
Amid this mounting speculation, the fruit of her collaboration was released in the form of Ice Spice’s song Did It First.
From her debut album Y2K!, the track was about cheating on partners and featured Central Cee.
Hours after the song’s debut, he joined Ice Spice onstage during her headlining set at Wireless festival in London’s Finsbury Park.
To most fans, it looked like Central Cee was cheating on Madeline.
And that same day, Madeline posted her suspicion that she was the one being cheated on.
To her TikTok fans, she said: ‘Imagine you break up with your boyfriend one night and the next day he’s posted up with Ice Spice in Chrome Hearts. I didn’t actually get to break up with him, and he’s already with the next girl.’
But she went one step further, doubting whether the relationship between Ice Spice and Central Cee was genuine in the first place.
In another TikTok video she explained that Central Cee told her the verse in the track in which he admits to cheating was ’just marketing’.
Madeline admitted to ‘airing out my dirty laundry because I got publicly humiliated and I still can’t beat the PR allegation’.
Swamped with cheating allegations, the Daily Mail now understands that both Central Cee and Madeline stayed in a relationship, to grow both of their brands.
Sources say the couple had in fact broken up before any of the Ice Spice drama, but that the publicity they were all getting was hard to turn down.
An insider said: ‘They publicly stayed together longer than they needed to for their brands.
‘They had actually broken up before the whole Ice Spice stunt happened.
‘It was a quiet break-up and Maddie’s whole TikTok meltdown about Ice Spice was to get her more views and to help promote his song and it seriously worked – they’ve both profited hugely from the “big blow up”.
‘And Mads knows that her relationship is a major selling point for her and gets so much engagement on her socials so she’s still making videos hinting that she’s been “wronged” or that “karma” will work its magic on her enemies.
‘That’s partly because Central Cee’s love life is back in the spotlight and trending on TikTok, so she’s simply getting her share of the clicks.’
For weeks after that, Madeline would then comment on Ice Spice’s videos of her promoting the song, trying to start ‘beef’.
The three protagonists wouldn’t let it lie, continuing to trade barbs.
Ice Spice captioned one of her social media video’s ‘when you steal her man’, while Madeline talked frequently of being upset and blindsided.
Is this normal behaviour for a woman scorned? Many think not, especially as the furore kept fans hooked as Ice Spice’s track climbed the charts.
Gen-Z audiences are no stranger to this cynical marketing strategy.
The story resembles that of rapper Aitch, 25, dating Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg, 31. It was, says a source, ‘a similar thing where a rapper dated a girl who was completely opposite to him with an entirely different audience’.
Central Cee has featured on albums by Dave and J Hus since beginning his career as a child
He had been nominated for three Brit awards by 2022 and soared to fame through his tracks
Speculation began in 2022 when the pair teased their romance on social media, with Aitch posting videos of himself on a date with Amelia’s nails or outfit or hair making a sneaky appearance.
It was during their third date that all the mystery disappeared and Aitch posted clips of himself and Amelia on TikTok. In the video the pair went bowling, shared an ice cream and Aitch even gave Amelia a cheeky kiss on the cheek. He also captioned the post saying: ‘Yeah you guessed it, f–k off now.’
Amelia also posted a video of the date on TikTok, seemingly confirming the rumours. Fans soon expressed their joy at the reveal, with one person writing: ‘OH MY GOD MY LIFE IS COMPLETE.’ Another commented: ‘It is unnatural how invested in this I am’.
But weeks later it was revealed the whole relationship was a PR stunt in the run up to Aitch’s new single release, Baby.
Parts of the song were featured in every video of the dates and, in the time since the song was released, no further dates have been posted on TikTok.
Amelia’s two Chicken Shop Dates with Aitch on YouTube now have 20million views.
And as Central Cee continues to be linked with other women, most recently to influencer Ruby Lyn, 25, – who has been called a lookalike to Madeline, Maddy still continues to benefit from her past relationship.
His relationship with Ice Spice fuelled speculation as to whether the two are seeing each other
The rapper performing with Ice Spice during last year’s Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park
Rubyn Lyn’s comment section under her most recent video, in which she’s wearing Central Cee’s t shirt, reads: ‘Madz and Central Cee forever’.
Another one says: ‘Madz is better.’
After Ruby’s video, which had garnered over 300,000 views by Wednesday night, Madeline posted a TikTok too.
‘If Karma is real, I will peacefully sit back and not let my enemies suffer,’ she said.
‘If it’s real, the debt certain people would have accrued by now would certainly mean that they have actually been hit by a bus the first time they walk out of their fuc**** house in the morning.’
Not surprisingly, her comment section was filled with Central Cee.
Ruby Lyn runs in similar circles as Madeline, with the two knowing each other from fashion events.
Lyn is best mates with another influencer Olivia Neil, a now ex-friend of Madeline’s.
She is also very good friends with Kate Moss’s daughter Lila, 22, with the group being spotted at DC10 in Ibiza a few weeks ago.
This year has seen Central Cee release a new album, feature on a single with Canadian music giant Drake, attend the Met Gala as well as embark on a world tour called Can’t Rush Greatness.
Since the relationship, Madeline’s career has also taken off.
She started a YouTube channel in 2022, where she began posting longer videos in which she spoke from inside her 1996 Vauxhall Astra about self-help.
She now has a podcast, Pretty Lonesome, which is produced by Unwell, the production company owned by Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper.
It touches on topics such as anxiety, imposter syndrome, sexuality and mental health. In July, Madeline was named in Time magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Creators – branded by the publication as the 100 most influential digital voices in the world.
She now has close ten million followers on TikTok, a further three million on Instagram and one million subscribers on YouTube.
She’s recently modelled for Calvin Klein, attended Paris Fashion Week with Louis Vuitton and worked on sponsorship deals with Chanel.
