I miss doing lads’ mag shoots, it was great money – but now I’ll only let my man see me in my undies, says Jorgie Porter
SHE used to get pulses racing with saucy lads’ mag shoots.
But now only one man sees Jorgie Porter in her undies — and the actress reveals she is ready to settle down with him.
While the Hollyoaks favourite is loved up with businessman Ollie Piotrowski, Jorgie admits that she misses stripping off for Noughties magazines such as Nuts, Zoo and FHM.
She says: “I miss the lads’ mags shoots. It was great money back then! I loved doing them. It was empowering as well.
“But it wasn’t all the posing. It was the confidence that was important.
“That’s what makes you sexy. I feel very grateful that I got to do all the lads’ mags.
“But I never see myself as sexy. I just think, ‘Oh, that’s a picture of me’.”
Jorgie says that she has finally found “the one” in Ollie, 31, who has a young son from a previous relationship.
The pair reconnected last September after briefly dating six years ago. Now the 33-year-old soap star says she can see babies in their future.
Just two years ago, Jorgie said the idea of settling down and having children “freaked her out”, adding: “I can’t see babies in my future. I just don’t get excited about babies.”
She now says: “That’s such a strong thing to say, isn’t it? But we move and we grow and learn.
“I thought I would never fall in love with a man so much and also I never thought I’d want them to be there.
“I always thought because my dad had never been there, maybe that’s what happens.
“If I had children, would the man want to be there for the children?
“Having met Ollie and seen what he’s like with his son, it was like, ‘Wow! This is the biggest eye-opener ever’.
"His son is the coolest kid ever. I adore this kid. He is amazing.
“And Ollie is the greatest dad I have ever witnessed. It makes me melt a bit more and I think, ‘You could be the father of my children’.
“I never imagined wanting to settle down with someone so much.
“It’s like this club we’ve just found and I’m like, ‘Ah, I get it now!’ I’ve joined the love club.”
Jorgie was raised single-handedly by mum Julie, and she has not had an easy time in her own quest for love.
She appeared on a First Dates Celebrity Special in 2015 and two years later featured on Celebs Go Dating.
But neither outing led to Jorgie finding a perfect match.
Exes include her former Hollyoaks co-star James Atherton, 33, and England rugby union international Luther Burrell, also 33.
The actress also enjoyed a brief flirtation with former Union J singer George Shelley, 27, in the I’m A Celebrity jungle in 2015.
But the star says her romance with Ollie, which was reignited between last year’s lockdowns, is the real deal — and she cannot now imagine life without him at her side.
Jorgie says: “It has completely blindsided me.
“We’ve found each other in all this chaos. It’s magical — like in a film when people get together.
“I never knew this type of love existed.
“Being in lockdown has helped us blossom because we’ve literally been on one track to the future.
“We go on bike rides rather than going out drinking or going for food.
“We have done some really cool stuff. To be quite honest, I am grateful for the pandemic for that reason. I do feel really lucky.
“Lots of people have not had such a good time in their relationships.”
The pair first met in 2015 but things did not work out between them on that occasion.
Jorgie returned to Hollyoaks playing feisty Theresa McQueen last October after four years away from the Channel 4 soap.
Of her romance with Ollie, she says: “We met in a bar and he was a bit forward.
“He was like, ‘I want your number’. And I was like, ‘No!’
“He didn’t have a clue who I was but I thought he did and was like, ‘I’m not Theresa’. He said, ‘I don’t know who you are’.
"We kind of locked eyes a bit and he said he would like to take me out.
"Eventually we did date for a while and it was fun, but I just think we were on different paths.
“We’d text a little bit throughout the six years and we’d bump into each other but we’d never meet.
“Now our stars have aligned and have brought us back together.”
She adds, with a laugh: “That’s the soppiest thing I’ve ever said.”
The pair rekindled their romance last summer when Ollie texted Jorgie asking for a date.
She says: “Pubs were still open, so we had a catch-up and literally, I was like, ‘You are the fittest man I’ve ever come across!’
“No other guy exists any more. He felt the same as well. It was butterflies straight away.”
Ahead of the second national lockdown last November, the pair decided to move into Jorgie’s Manchester home together rather than face weeks apart.
Now they are looking to make the arrangement permanent.
Jorgie says: “We made the decision that we’d lock down together. We’re quite similar.
“We’re basically the same person. We both can’t cook. We’re very similar in what we think. We’re very hardworking and he’s got a clever mind.
“We’re looking at moving in together properly now and we are looking at houses. It is the best-case scenario really.”
Jorgie has never met her dad. Her mum Julie, who is an illustrator and painter, was helped as a single parent by Jorgie’s gran Elizabeth, who died in 2014.
Julie lives in the house next door to Jorgie and has given Ollie her seal of approval.
Jorgie says: “They hang out over the wall, which is cool.
“My mum is my best friend and my absolute hero. Me and her have the tightest relationship.
“When people meet her, they understand me. I got my sense of humour from my mum. She has always been a bit fearless.”
About her childhood, Jorgie says: “I was always happy and content.
“Because I was an only child I learnt to live with ‘just me’. It can be a bad thing sometimes, though.
“I don’t share. I am still learning. My mum has always supported whatever I wanted to do.
“She would go out of her way to make the money for me to follow my ambitions.
“I wanted to go to dance school, so my mum would paint pictures and make books to earn the money to do that.
“My grandma was quite eccentric and she was a teacher, so she would always teach me how to spell — and how to just be me. She was very posh, which was quite different from my mum.
“For my mum, my grandma was her support system. So after she died we only had each other.
“It’s quite a small family but it’s all I’ve ever known. I have always wanted a big family so there can be more people involved.”
Jorgie admits not having a dad around shaped how she views life.
Her Loose Lips podcast was recently joined by new co-host Sharon Carpenter, to dish out their views on relationships, friendship, careers, body image issues and more.
She says: “I have not had a dad around, so obviously my views will be completely different to what those people with a mum and a dad will think.
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“We have all been brought up differently, lead different lives and see things in different ways.
“Personally, for me it’s important to hear other people’s views so I can understand them.
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“We talk about everything. Some of the conversations are a bit risqué — but we delve into pretty serious topics too.”
- New episodes of the Loose Lips podcast with Jorgie Porter and Sharon Carpenter are released every Tuesday. Loose Lips: Extra Lippy brings listeners even more from Jorgie and Sharon on Fridays