Holy spray tans! Can it really be 16 years since we met the young and fresh-faced (sometimes even without surgery too) stars of The Only Way Is Essex?

TOWIE, famous for its explosive friendship spats and complicated love triangles, ‘put Essex on the map’. So says Amy Childs, who was 20 when she joined the cast. She still meets people who have flown across the world to visit, thanks to the reality TV show that keeps giving – to the point where series 38 is currently unfolding on our screens.

‘I was in Brentwood, in the high street, the other day, and met an Australian who said, “Oh my God, we love the show,”’ Amy says. ‘People are still watching, still loving it. For many people it’s a guilty pleasure.’

The woman who introduced the world to vajazzling (for the uninitiated, that’s decorating a woman’s privates with stick-on jewels and glitter) is now 36 and a mum of four, but she still revels in her role as an OG (as the original cast members are called).

‘I’m the Ken Barlow of TOWIE. I’ve been there from the start. I’m more of a mum these days. I’m in all the WhatsApp group chats so I know what’s going on with the rows and the drama, but I don’t get involved. But I’m there for the [younger] girls, I’m really proud of them. I look at them now and think, “God, that was me.” But they are all mature. They know what they are doing.’

Amy didn’t know what she was doing, as she is the first to admit. When she joined the show, with her four GCSEs, she was a beautician. She laughs, remembering how the producers – unsure themselves how popular a reality show that showcased ordinary, if bling, lives would be – issued a warning.

‘They told us we’d go back to our ordinary jobs after it. I thought, “Lovely. Do a bit of telly, then go back.” There was no expectation beyond that.’

She remembers being stopped in the street back then and congratulated on her acting skills. One thinks of the jaw-dropping conversation she had with her cousin Harry Derbidge (she was giving him a spray tan at the time) in which they discussed what the capital of India was.

Amy confidently said it wasn’t France, but had previously thought it might be Pakistan. Harry mused about Persia, which Amy wasn’t sure was a real place. Geography teachers everywhere wanted to shoot themselves, but a legend was born, even if many assumed Amy was acting (as surely no one could be that clueless).

‘People would say, “You are such a great actress, Amy,” thinking I was doing an acting job. I wasn’t! I couldn’t. I’m not an actress. I was playing myself. It was bizarre how it all took off. Before we knew it everyone was going mad for TOWIE, there were paparazzi everywhere we went. Everyone was talking about the catchphrases, the vajazzling. What a moment to be alive.’

Courtney Green, now 31, joined the cast in 2016 – to her parents’ horror. A university drop-out who had only ever had a temp job, when she broke the news of her new employment after being approached in a nightclub, ‘they were like, “Absolutely no way. You are not doing it.” I was so young, and they didn’t know what I was getting into. But now they are so proud. My grandma passed away last year and she was TOWIE’s number-one fan. She’d call me up every Sunday night and discuss what was going on on the show.’

The Only Way Is Essex has been on air since 2010 – and 16 years on Amy Childs says she still meets people who have flown across the world to visit Essex thanks to the reality TV show

Series 38 of TOWIE, famous for its explosive friendship spats and complicated love triangles, is currently unfolding on our screens

TOWIE star Courtney Green says the show is her job and livelihood, adding: ‘Without it, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage.’

Courtney’s family changed their attitude when they realised she was making a living and setting herself up for her future. She admits she gets cross when people suggest she should get a ‘real’ job, or think people can get voted off the show.

‘What winds me up is when people say, “Why are you still on it? You should get fired.” Would they say that to anyone else? TOWIE is my job. It’s my livelihood. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. I wouldn’t be able to pay my mortgage. It just baffles me when people basically call for me to get the sack.’

But what about career progression? Courtney admits the sector is saturated – and uber competitive. When Amy and her contemporaries Joey Essex and Gemma Collins were starting, it was easy for the big characters to stand out – and make millions, even eclipsing the TOWIE brand.

Courtney concedes it’s less easy for this generation. ‘I’d love to do other shows. I’d love to do SAS, Strictly, but it’s hard now because there are so many of us who are doing the same thing, and it’s really competitive. Even getting in the jungle [on I’m A Celebrity…] is hard, it’s so competitive.’

The career paths of the other TOWIE stars here today are pretty diverse. Elma Pazar, 34, was an accountant before retraining as an eyelash technician and starting her own business (clearly seeing where the money was). Her route into showbiz was on Love Island in 2019, and she joined TOWIE in 2022.

Amber Turner, 33, has been on the show since 2017, and did stints as a waitress, then a fashion blogger – although it was a romance with Joey Essex long before she joined TOWIE that first brought her to public attention.

Ella Rae Wise, who at 26 is the baby of today’s crop, was working as a hairdresser when she was scouted on Instagram. People still tell her that they assume the show is scripted, which has her rolling her eyes. ‘We don’t get scripts. It would be easier if we did. But this is our real lives and that’s why we are so good at it. We just don’t have boring lives!’

Why were they cast? Looks will have come into it, but more important was a willingness to live their lives on screen, to be prepared, even enthusiastic, about having their low moments broadcast to millions. So what does that feel like?

Courtney recalls being in her early 20s and discovering that her boyfriend at the time, fellow cast member Myles Barnett, was cheating on her. A woman texted her after watching the show. ‘I found out because the public were watching the show. I remember the message from the girl saying, “I feel really sorry for you because he’s been cheating on you.” I felt sick. You’ve always got the opinions of your family and friends when something like that happens, but I had 100,000 people on top, saying, “You need to leave him.” It’s hard to navigate that.’

Courtney did leave him, and coped by embracing the fact that the public had empathy with her, and that her experience might reflect theirs. ‘It’s the relatability thing. You realise that other people have been through the same thing, so you don’t feel so alone – although at the time, you are just in it, thinking, “My God, what is happening to me?”’

While the romantic relationships of TOWIE are giddying, and keep the storylines bubbling along, it’s the friendships that are often more explosive. The last series saw the cast decamp to Vietnam, where living together in a Love Island-type villa inevitably meant more rows.

There was quite the bust-up between Elma and Harry over… well, it’s a bit of a saga but it falls into the ‘who-said-what-to-whom-when-they-shouldn’t-have’ type of spat. Others became embroiled, sides were taken, it spiralled into a wider drama involving Ella and Courtney, plus Livvy Jay, Freddie Bentley, Saffron Lempriere, Joe Blackman and Junaid Ahmed – and, frankly, it’s still ongoing, and TOWIE fans will need popcorn.

Why are these things TOWIE gold? Elma, a feisty character who seems to be in the middle of quite a few feuds, volunteers an explanation when I ask if they are like this with their off-screen friends.

‘If someone does something [in real life] that annoys you, you can walk away, compose yourself. Whatever it is might never even get addressed. On TOWIE, everything is addressed, things come to light. I can’t think of any friends off the show I’ve rowed with. If I have, it’s someone I don’t plan on having back in my life. The public attention is a big factor.’

So it’s just part of the job to have a ding-dong, but it can be a difficult part. ‘Friendship break-ups [on the show] are worse than romantic break-ups,’ says Elma. ‘In a relationship you expect to have rows. But you don’t make friends to fall out with them.’ Her unforgiving nature doesn’t help, she admits. She and Harry don’t appear to have built bridges. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever fallen out with someone and built bridges,’ she says. ‘Once you see someone in a different light, it’s hard to unsee it.’

This series also sees a proposal (Junaid to Joe), which somehow ends up in another all-out feud. Another biggie has been rumbling on since 2025, when Ella had a spat with Freddie, whom she brought into the show. They were real-life besties, but fell out on a trip to Portugal, unfollowing each other on Instagram.

Ella Wise says people still tell her that they assume the show is scripted, to which she says they ‘don’t get scripts’ but jokes that 'it would be easier if we did’

Amy Childs is throwing the wedding to end all weddings in September after she and her partner Billy – dad to her three-year-old twins – tied the knot in April

Are there lessons to be learned here? Yes, says Ella: never bring your best friend onto a show like TOWIE. ‘I brought someone on the show who was a very close friend for a long time and on TOWIE things changed. Nine times out of ten you are going to end up arguing with that person and you are going to end up falling out. There’s a reason people say it’s better to keep pleasure and business separate. I do that more now. With [romantic] relationships too, I probably wouldn’t bring someone into TOWIE, unless they were already on the show, of course.’

Amber has been involved in a few dramas too. She and Elma had a moment (‘But I’ll always be fine with Elma’) and there was a set-to with Saffron that’s sorted now. ‘As much as I’m a grudge-holder, we cleared the air, although I did say, “Let me and Saffron have one argument a year.” I said to her, “I’ll see you next year for our next little disagreement,” and we kind of laughed it off.’

Of course it’s not all about the rows. Amber points out that there are warm, life-affirming moments in the new series, such as Sophie Kasaei and Jordan Brook preparing for their much-longed-for baby, Brody (who arrived in June).

There was endless drama associated with this: the couple had trouble conceiving, then Jordan fell desperately ill with viral meningitis and there were fears he wouldn’t pull through. At times like these, the entire cast rallies.

‘It just shows that we really are one big family. A dysfunctional family, sometimes, who row a lot, but when the big things happen, differences are put aside and we celebrate,’ says Ella. ‘We all knew how much Sophie and Jordan wanted to be parents, and when Jordan was ill we were all there for Sophie. We do try to be a family.’

Which brings us to the next family occasion: Amy Childs is throwing the wedding to end all weddings in September. She and her partner Billy – dad to her three-year-old twins – tied the knot in April, but are also having a huge wedding in Spain. ‘It’s an excuse to party,’ Amy says.

There may or may not be four wedding dresses involved (‘That changes on a daily basis,’ she jokes). There is also likely to be a televised TOWIE spin-off about the big day. And an attendee list reading like a Who’s Who from the show?

‘I can’t actually go through the guest list now but ITV are going through it,’ Amy says.

Which kind of says it all.

TOWIE airs Sundays and Mondays at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.