Stacey Solomon ‘horrified’ after reality show backlash as Joe Swash is branded ‘useless’
STACEY Solomon has been left shocked by the backlash to her family reality show after husband Joe Swash faced criticism from viewers who branded him “useless.”
Stacey and Joe’s BBC series launched on Tuesday and follows their family life at Pickle Cottage.
It shows her balancing a booming career, including a new perfume range, alongside the couple raising Rex, five, Rose, three, and Belle, two, plus her sons Zachary, 17, and Leighton, 12, from previous relationships, and Joe’s son Harry, 16.
One scene showed Stacey, 35, left fuming after Joe was five hours late picking up their kids.
She had been looking forward to her first meeting to discuss the creation of her debut fragrance, but it was disrupted by her crying children.
She told the camera: “Joe was supposed to come to this meeting but he’s been delayed indefinitely it seems.”
Partway through, a breathless Joe entered the room and apologised for being 20 minutes late due to traffic.
However, Stacey told him he was actually closer to five hours late, prompting her associate to take a swipe at Joe’s 20 minute guestimate.
Viewers sympthised with Stacey, and one said: “Watching #staceyandjoe is enough to ensure I never have 5 kids because what is this chaos along with a useless husband.”
Another said: “How hard was it for Joe to be on time!! Gosh, he’s like another child for Stacey!”
A third moaned: “This show is making me exasperated for poor Stacey.”
The warts and all BBC docuseries promised to lay bare life at the couple’s family home – however, sources claim Joe is struggling with the criticism.
A source close to the couple revealed to OK!: “Stacey and Joe want to work from home and show off their beautiful house and happy family.
“They want it to be like a more down-to-earth version of The Kardashians! But the fact is, with that, you do get criticism and people giving their opinions—more so than they realised.
“Joe can be very sensitive to criticism and gets very upset by it, so doing the show is not as easy as it seems.”
Later, Stacey was left clashing with 17-year-old son Zach after he had a late-night party that went on until 4am.
She had allowed him to throw a party with his friends to mark the end of summer providing he woke up by 11am the next day and helped with the clean-up operation.