Celebrity Big Brother fans have been left in shock after discovering Angellica Bell‘s very famous husband. The TV star entered the iconic house earlier this week and her husband – former children’s TV presenter Michael Underwood – has been cheering her on every step of the way.
In a wholesome video shared online, Michael, 49, spoke out about his wife’s entrance into the Celebrity Big Brother house as he gushed over Angellica’s personality. “I just hope she goes in there and shows you what I see every day and have seen every day since we met like 25 years ago, and what I see every day since we’ve been married. You know, just that kind, funny, straight talking person,” he said.
“I hope you get to see that because I think in all the other stuff she’s done on TV, that hasn’t always come through because of the type of show she’s working on. But I’d love it. This is her chance to be herself and I think that’ll work really well for her.”
While viewers may know Angellica, 49, for her roles in shows including The Big Breakfast, 50/50 and, more recently, The Martin Lewis Money Show, Michael is just as famous. Back in the 90s and 00s, he hosted the likes of Jungle Run, The Big Bang and Ministry of Mayhem.
In response to the sweet clip, viewers took to the comment section to share their disbelief over Michael and Angellica’s relationship. “Howwww did I not know you were married,” wrote one. “I think you’ve shocked all millennials, I did not know you two were married. You two bossed our TV growing up, I love that you’re together! Just can’t believe I didn’t know,” commented a second.
Meanwhile, a third wrote: “MICHAEL UNDERWOOD OFF OF JUNGLE RUN AND ANGELICA BELL ARE MARRIED?? Why did I not know this.” And a fourth added: “Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt – You two got married.”
While viewers may have been taken aback by the discovery, Angellica and Michael have been married for almost 15 years. The pair tied the knot in December 2010 in New York after getting engaged in the city a year prior, on Christmas Eve. For the occasion, Michael sported a tartan Vivienne Westwood suit while Angellica dazzled in a twenties-style white dress.
“Having got engaged in New York last year, we thought it would be fitting to get married in the same place,” Michael said in a statement at the time. In a Facebook post, Angellica added: “You can call me Mrs Underwood.”
Although the pair got married in 2010, they actually first met in 1999 while working at CBBC. At the time, Michael had been working at the channel for around eight months and he explained how Angellica went straight to working on CBBC UK which was “quite a big deal” for any presenter.
“So he was bitter. He was a bit of an idiot to me,” Angellica joked during an interview with the Evening Standard in 2012. Michael responded: “She was brilliant though. She was the cool presenter that swanned in. I may have come across as a bit of an idiot but I never meant to. I obviously had feelings for her.”
The pair went to the cinema for their first date, though Michael told the publication that they shared an “incredibly awkward kiss” before they “drifted in and out of touch”. After around seven years of “toing and froing”, the iconic duo finally became an item.
“We kept in touch but we did our own thing and met other people. I made mistakes. I was with somebody else but before I got with that person Michael said how he felt. It was a tricky time but I finally realised Michael was the one and we got together,” Angellica explained.
The pair share two children together, with Angellica previously opening up about her experience of being a parent. “Michael and I always make sure one of us is with the children if we are working – we don’t have any help and like to be with them. If I go to the gym, I’ll go at 6am before they wake up. And if we go out in the evenings, it’s always after we have put them to bed,” she told Mother and Baby in 2015.
While Angellica is still a familiar face on our screens, Michael quit fame and became a teacher. Although the switch to the classroom may seem an unusual one, the former presenter secured a teaching degree at uni prior to working in TV. “It was my mum who actually said: ‘Why don;t you think of doing drama as a teaching degree, specialise in that and you’ve got something to fall back on if the acting doesn’t work out,'” he told The Mirror in 2021.
After completing a four-year BEd teaching degree, Michael’s big break happened by chance while he was attempting to save up enough money to pay for a teaching access course after university. As a result, he began working at a local radio station where he saw an advert looking for a children’s TV presenter. He attended an audition, and the rest was history.
“I got a call to go to London, auditioned and ended up on this Gaby Roslin show on a Saturday night and won a three-week contract. Before you know it, I was into that,” he explained.
However, he added that his career later reached a point where there just wasn’t enough work coming in. “The phone stopped ringing. It’s just not a nice place to be in. I needed to make a decision. I thought, you know what I’ve got my teaching degree, I’ve got 20 years in broadcasting behind me, maybe I can take that skill set and put it to good use,” he said.
“Help build children’s confidence, help them with their oracy, their presenting skills. That’s when I thought: ‘Yeah, let’s grab the bull by the horns and maybe take a step out into a different career’.”
Elsewhere, in an interview with The Sun, Angellica showed her support over her husband’s career change. “It’s been amazing. It was hard at first because he really wanted to do TV and had no control over that,” she said.
“But he loves it now. His students are like his extended children. They are blessed to have him. He thinks of creative ways to teach, to keep them engaged. He’s even got some parents now going, ‘Oh my gosh, I used to watch you on Jungle Run’.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
