I’d love to meet Mr Right and have a house full of kids – but there’s a big reason why I’m waiting, says Lydia Bright

LYDIA Bright has opened up about her love life - saying she'd love to meet Mr Right and have a house full of kids but revealed the important reason why she's waiting.

The former Towie star, 32, said that throwing herself back into the dating pool is not her "priority" at the moment but she is hopeful that she will find the love of her life in the near future.

Lydia - who is mum to three-year-old daughter Loretta with ex-boyfriend Lee Cronin - said she would have no time to fit in a relationship with her busy work diary and being a single mum.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Lydia said: "I would absolutely love to meet someone but I think I would need to make it a bit more of a priority.

"People always go ‘you’ll meet someone when you least expect it’ but I don’t believe that because you have to put yourself out there.

"You have to go out more, you have to be going out in the evenings, going to bars or asking around for people ‘like, do you have anyone you can set me up with?’.

"So you have to push yourself a little bit more and at the moment, it isn’t my priority, this is my biggest time at work, I’ve been working on a massive project for years.

"My children’s book has been taking up so much of my time, I’m renovating my house – I only moved in seven months ago and everything needs doing.

"I’ve only so far done my kitchen and I’m raising Loretta.

"I do get help but I am doing a lot of it myself."

The Essex beauty admitted that there will come a point when she feels "the void" of not having a partnership with someone, but said she has not reached that stage just yet.

";So whilst I’d absolutely love to meet someone, I have to make it a priority," Lydia continued.

"At the moment, those other things are just a little bit more important to me.

"I think I will get to a point where maybe I feel a void and maybe I will make dating more of a priority but at the moment, I’m not quite there.

"Who knows when I’m going to get there because we are like four years down the line.

"When I do feel a bit more of a void, then I will push myself."

The mum-of-one and ex Lee called it quits just two months after they found out they were expecting.

Despite that difficult time, Lydia hasn't looked back and said that raising her daughter and becoming a mum has been the "making of her".

"I absolutely love raising Loretta and it just being me and her. Whilst I would love to meet someone else, I don’t think I’m quite ready," she told us

"I like it just being us two - know it will change in the future. I’m not sitting here saying I’m going to be single forever with 50 cats, but you have to life at your own pace.

"You have to roll with life and life’s journey and do things when you feel ready and not pressured to do what everyone else is doing.

"There will get a point when I feel the need but at the moment I am very happy how life is."

Lydia explained that when she meets her future partner then she will approach is sensitively with her daughter before introducing them into her family.

She said: "I haven’t really given it a whole load of thought because until I actually meet someone and feel like things are serious then I will think about that a little bit more and when would be the right timing and how it would be done and the discussions that need to be had.

Lydia - who has partnered with the Crock-Pot project where she’s helping us show how to reconnect and bring communities back together through the love of food - said expanding her family would be a dream come true.

The TV favourite said: "I would love to do it again, that is my biggest dream to have more children.

"Where I have come from, such a big family, my parents have four biological children and two adopted children and then they’ve got foster children.

"I’ve always grown up with lots of children and that’s something I want Loretta to grow up in a household with a lot of children.

"That’s something I really want to give to her because I loved my childhood and that’s something I really want to give to me, I want to create more children."

Lydia is also keen to follow in her parents footsteps, saying: "Fostering is something I definitely think about a lot and would love to do.

"At the moment where I am so busy with work and what I do, it’s not something I can take on now because that’s a whole other career path and I would have to cut back on what I’m doing.

"But never say never, people become foster carers in their 50s."

While Lydia may be enjoying the single life, her ex James 'Arg' Argent is happily loved-up with stunning Italian model Stella Turian, 19.

Lydia was full of praise for her pal Arg, saying she is proud of him for overcoming his battles, including his drink and drug addiction since finding fame on Towie.

"Me and Arg are still close, even when we broke up, we’ve always remained good friends," Lydia said.

"We were really conscious before about putting anything up [on social media] about our friendship because people would think we were getting back together.

"I think now because it’s been so long, we’ve had a whole other life since then - I've had a child and we haven’t been together for nearly seven years, it’s a long long time – people don’t say it now and just accept that we’re friends.

"We’ve been through so much together, from doing Towie and all his battles and all my ups and downs, we’ve always been in each others lives and I love his family dearly, his mum, nan and sister. We’ll always remain close.

"I’m so proud of him for overcoming all of his battle.

"He’s also got an amazing career now, he’s doing what he always wanted to do.

"He is so busy, he performs everywhere, that was always his dream.

"He was always in dead end jobs when he was younger, but this was always his passion and he’s now doing what he loves most and I’m so proud of him."

Opening up about the first time she met Arg's girlfriend Stella, Lydia said: "We all met at his birthday at Sheesh around a year ago, that’s the only time that I met her and she seems very sweet."

Lydia has teamed up with Crock-Pot for a new campaign after research shows Brits have not communicated with their neighbours for at least six months.

The star said cooking up a one-pot wonder to share with their neighbours, friends, and family can help bring back the community spirit.  

The reality star said: "I have been a genuine fan of Crock-Pot and have previously shared recipes that I’ve used.

"The campaign is about bringing friends, families and communities together. I speak about it often and promote it on my social media, the fact that I’m part of this big family, we’re always together and the importance of that.

"I don’t know what I would do without my mum and dad. It’s a shame that so many families aren’t as close as us in the UK."

Join Lydia and the Crock-Pot Kind Communities challenge for a chance to win £1,000 to spend on groceries and a brand-new Crock-Pot Sizzle and Stew Slow Cooker or a Turbo Express Multi-cooker. See more by following Crock-Pot on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.