Topics: Andy Burnham, Politics, UK News, Reality TV, Entertainment
He might be the country's new Prime Minister, but not every aspect of Andy Burnham's life ran as smoothly as his recent election.
In fact, it recently emerged that Marie-France van Heel, the wife of the new Labour leader, took part in a reality TV dating series not long after the couple began seeing one another.
Burnham, 56, met his Dutch-born, Belgium-raised other half, nicknamed 'Frankie', back in the late 1980s. The pair both attended Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge. While the future politician was in his second year, studying English Literature, Frankie was a fresher.
He later told the press Frankie was the 'coolest girl in college', claiming his university highlight was 'meeting my future wife'.
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Shortly after Frankie and Burnham struck up a relationship, however, she was approached to appear as a guest on musician and presenter Cilla Black's hit dating show, Blind Date.
The series ran throughout the 80s and 90s on ITV, seeing Black star as a matchmaker.
A singleton would choose a partner from three unseen suitors of the opposite sex by asking quirky questions. After the famous screen slid back, the winning couple was sent on a romantic holiday.
After being approached by a runner to appear on the show, Frankie broached the subject with then-new boyfriend Burnham.
Surprisingly, however, the ex-Manchester mayor was all for it, agreeing for his future wife to take part.
Burnham later admitted he watched the episode from behind the sofa, reluctantly witnessing Frankie choose to go out with a man named Will from Surrey, who wore a Mario-esque set of blue dungarees and a red sweatshirt.
On the show, Frankie asked Will what he gets up to in the shower, after which he replied: "I generally make up poems and short stories."
Asked to spit some bars, Will rhymed: "Oh Frankie, oh Frankie, your name is quite cranky, pick me for your Blind Date, and there’ll be no hanky-panky."
Frankie went on to ask Will, 'What would you do if you were my first taste of British men?', after which he eerily replied: "You give me half an hour and I’ll give you the best time of your life."
Despite the awkward interaction, the pair's date took place in Gibraltar, during which Will branded Frankie a 'cold fish', and she told him to 'f**k off'.
The disaster worked well for Burnham, however, who married Frankie eight years later.
Insanely, however, the left-wing leader would later come face-to-face with his wife's ex, after Will joined the Conservative Party.
"My wife and I have been together for 25 years, but in the early days she was on Blind Date," Burnham previously told The Mirror. "She was the picker, and to add insult to injury, she picked Will from Surrey, who ended up being the director of communications for the Conservative Party."
Awkward!
