British TV presenter Hayley Palmer has given an inside look into her relationship with The Chase Australia star Mark “The Beast” Labbett.
And she has made a startling confession about her boyfriend’s job.
Labbett, 58, and Palmer, 42, met at the UK National Television Awards in 2022, and later became a couple.
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Initially, Palmer now reveals, she thought they were “just friends”.
She says that, immediately after meeting at the awards show, she and Labbett were quick to develop banter.
She says they began joking over a voucher that Labbett had to UK restaurant chain, Toby Carvery — which Palmer says she was teasingly trying to steal from him during the show.
“The day after the award show, Mark tweeted and messaged me, and said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll take you to that Toby Carvery,’ but I thought it was (as) friends,” Palmer tells 7NEWS.com.au.
After a successful dinner, Labbett appeared on Palmer’s 80s quiz show in January 2023 before they went together to watch Dirty Dancing in London.
“We just got on really well,” she says.
Despite attending several events together, Palmer says she “still thought it was (as) friends” until later down the track.
Now gushing about her boyfriend, Palmer says it was his “kindness that attracted me to him”.
“He came down to see me in Portsmouth where my mother lives … and we were just walking along the beach one day,” she said.
“And I just thought, ‘You know what, he’s really nice, kind, a gentleman and I know he will look after me’, and he does look after me.
“I just thought he’s a very beautiful soul, a really nice person.
“And I was right, he is.
“They are the qualities that I look for in someone. I could see it in him.
“It just kind of went from there.”
Chase confession
In what may surprise some fans, Palmer confesses to never being a regular watcher of The Chase, saying she is often out when it airs in the UK.
But once the pair went public with their relationship, she visited her boyfriend on the set of Beat the Chasers.
“Mark invited me to go along, and I was very impressed. And Mark was doing all the answers right, which is very sexy,” she laughs.
After the couple went public, Palmer remarked that it has been “such a lovely response” from fans.
“We didn’t even think it would be much of a response,” she said.
While Labbett has many Australian fans who were excited about him finding love, their relationship “blew up” in the UK.
“Everyone’s talking about it and I just think my friends and family are happy to see us happy,” Palmer says.
“We’re in a really good place, that’s the ultimate thing.”
Palmer recently met Labbett’s family, who she says are “so, so nice”.
“I got on with them straight away. So yeah, they’re really pleased for us,” she says.
The couple is “taking things day by day” — and navigating a long-distance relationship due to filming commitments.
“What’s really nice is that we always say, ‘Well, I’m doing this, you’re doing this, what date can we meet up? Let’s make it a couple of days of just really good quality time together’,” she says.
“So it was quite nice actually because we really do miss each other.
“And then we’re excited to see each other again we have a nice time.
“So it works really well. We both have busy schedules and neither of us has ever just sat there doing nothing.”
Despite their workloads, they “make it work”, she says.
“We’re looking forward to the future.”
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