Babatunde Aléshé Had The Most Relatable First Date With His Wife

Out of all the campmates in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle, comedian Babatunde Aléshé has certainly created some of the show’s most memorable moments so far. He addressed the elephant in the room when it came to Matt Hancock, calling out his affair with aide Gina Coladangelo by telling him he was “grabbing booty” rather than simply falling in love. Babatunde continues to be the light and heart of the I’m A Celeb camp and has opened up on occasion about his life back home with his wife and family. So who is Babatunde’s wife, and what does she think about his decision to enter the jungle?

Babatunde met his childhood sweetheart Leonie at school, and became fast friends. But that all changed when the comedian developed a crush on her. “One day I was like, ‘Wow, you’re pretty,’ and it went from there,” he told his campmates, Mike Tindall and Owen Warner. Babatunde revealed that their first date was at a Nandos, which Leonie confirmed on Instagram, adding that she turned up late. “He told me, ‘If you’re late again you’ll get here and I won’t be here,’” she said. “And I kid you not, he wasn’t joking.”

During an appearance on ITV’s Lorraine, Leonie, who owns a travel company and is a travel business coach, added that because they “didn’t have much money” at the time, “Nandos was quite up there.” She thought the date was “going to be fun and exciting, but he was laying down all these rules, but we absolutely fell in love within like seven days.”

The couple got married in September 2015 and had a little boy called Judah. When Babatunde starred on Celebrity Gogglebox with friend and comedian Mo Gilligan, he said he was a very competitive dad regarding sports day. Leonie regularly shares her life as a working mum on Instagram and discussed its ups and downs on the Mums Can with Kashina Smith podcast.

As for what Leonie thinks about her partner being in the jungle, she’s surprised that he’s taken on something that involves a lack of food. “He’s a really big snacker so he will really miss it,” she said on Lorraine. “I think he’s going to come back really ripped from all the snacks he hasn’t been eating.”