Inside lives of Gogglebox duo Jenny and Lee from partners to home lives (2024)

The pair have kept us entertained with their best friendship since 2014, with their quick quips, excellent side-eye reactions and brutal digs at each other.

Gogglebox just wouldn't be the same without best friends Jenny and Lee.

The pair, who live in Hull, have kept us entertained with their best friendship since 2014, with their quick quips, excellent side-eye reactions and brutal digs at each other.

Since their debut on the Channel 4 show, we have seen Jenny show off her detective skills with her 'H' notebook during the final series of Line of Duty, Lee accidentally eating Jenny's face cream after thinking it was delicious dip, and Jenny staining all of Lee's white washing orange after mistakenly chucking in a coloured towel.

But what do we know about their lives outside of the Channel 4 series?

Who are Jenny and Lee and how did they meet?

Jenny Newby and Lee Riley are two good friends. They first met more than 25 years after meeting in a pub where Jenny was landlady in 1994.

Jenny told Ireland’s Big Issue magazine: "Lee was a customer at my pub, The Crown Inn in Paull. He became a regular in 1994 and used to come in pretty much every night with his partner and we were friends from the off. We’ve been best friends ever since."

Lee added: "I wish I’ve never gone in the pub – it cost me a fortune. When I first met her she had a perm and I can remember thinking, 'She needs a haircut'. We were firm friends immediately.

"I don’t think we’ve ever had an argument. We’re too placid to argue. She makes me laugh too much for me to ever fall out with her."

Jenny said the pair loved to watch TV together even before the show happened.

The pair even moved in together during Covid-19 pandemic to allow them to continue filming for Gogglebox.

Jenny is 69 years old and Lee turned 57 in September 2024.

How did Jenny and Lee join Gogglebox?

Recruiters from the Channel 4 show approached Jenny at Beverley Races Ladies' Day if she would appear on the show with her husband.

Instead she begged Lee to join her - and he took quite a bit of convincing.

"I wasn't [at Beverley Races] but she asked me if I wanted to sit and do a test filming with her," Lee told the Hull Daily Mail "I'd never seen Gogglebox, it had only just started, so I walked into filming swearing my head off because she'd got me out of bed on my day off."

Jenny said the magic of Gogglebox is it features ordinary people doing what everyone around the country is doing - watching TV and having a good old chat about it.

“It’s just ordinary people reacting as anyone would," she said. "I think people watch and see themselves, ‘Oh, I do that, or, I said that’."

“It’s all completely natural,” said Lee.

“You forget the cameras are there and you just act normally.”

Are Jenny and Lee in a relationship and who are their partners?

Jenny is happily married to husband Ray, who has never once appeared on the show. He declined to take part on Gogglebox but Lee was encouraged in his place.

Lee is currently in a relationship with Steve Mail and they have been together for 30 years. Steve lives in Cyprus and Lee often travels to the Mediterranean island to spend some quality time with his long-term boyfriend.

He took to Instagram in October 2024 to wish his boyfriend a happy birthday. Lee told Steve to have the "happiest" day but not to have "too much fun" as he couldn't be in Cyprus to celebrate his special day with him.

Lee accompanied the post with a selfie of himself and Steve as he wrote: "Wishing this gorgeous person that’s the one on the left a very happiest of birthdays.

"Have fun, not too much as I can't be there in Cyprus to celebrate with you. Love ya to the moon Steve xx"

Do Jenny and Lee live together and who owns the caravan?

Gogglebox is filmed in Lee's caravan and is stationed in Patrington Haven caravan park in Hull, where Lee lives when he's not overseas. Jenny normally lives with her husband Ray elsewhere.

They did live together temporarily during the first lockdown in spring 2020, just to ensure they could continue filming while Lee's partner Steve was in Cyprus. They tweeted their news from their shared account, Lee writing: "Well what can we say it's Friday and it's still on #Gogglebox.

"Jenny and me watching together as we are both on lockdown TOGETHER friends with no benefits I may add an hour of laughs stay safe stay well #StayHomeSavesLives."

After nine long weeks of living in the caravan, Jenny left Lee to return home to Ray. "I'll miss you when I go home. Have you bought me a leaving present?" she asked Lee on camera. "Yeah. A f**king suitcase," Lee shot back.