Vogue Williams said one of her biggest regrets is insisting on paying 50% of everything when she first got together with Spencer Matthews. On her first appearance on Celebrity Gogglebox, Williams said the decision was meant to keep things equal early on, but looking back eight years later she sees it differently.
The remark came during a chat with Joanne McNally, who cut straight to the point. When Williams said she had been paying her way, McNally replied that she had tried to make a point and ended up shooting herself in the feminist foot. Williams did not argue with the sentiment. Instead, she admitted, “Listen, I didn't think I would be here eight years later [with him].” McNally’s answer was blunt: “I don't think anyone did!”
The exchange aired on Channel 4 and gave a rare glimpse into the private logic behind a relationship that has now stretched from a first meeting in January 2017 to marriage in 2018. Williams and Matthews are also expecting their fourth child, a detail that adds a sharper edge to the confession: what started as a relationship she thought might not last has become a family life built over years rather than weeks.
The money admission is only part of the picture. Williams also said Matthews wants her to change her surname to Matthews, but she is not keen. “I love my name, Vogue Williams,” she said, while pointing out that she is legally Wilson and uses Williams because it was the name she was born with. She said she changed her name at 17, after her mother Sandra married businessman Neil Wilson, which is part of why the idea of changing it again does not sit easily with her.
That leaves the question hanging where it was left on screen: Williams clearly knows the practical argument for sharing a family name, but she has not said she is ready to give up the one she already uses in public and in law. For now, the confession on Celebrity Gogglebox looks less like a decision than a line she is still drawing in real time.
