The musician and actor is one of 12 stars taking part on the ITV reality series
Martin and Shirlie have been married since 1988(Image: PA)
I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here star Martin Kemp has been married to his wife Shirlie Holliman for nearly four decades, but who was the pop legend who set them up and why did she say she ‘didn’t want fame’?
Former EastEnders actor Martin is one of twelve stars currently competing on the popular Ant and Dec ITV reality show. Now one week into his journey in the Australian jungle, Martin is yet to be tasked with taking on a bushtucker trial.
Martin has cast an emotional figure at the campsite on several occasions, recently making Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley tearing up over his reaction to getting a big breakfast, which reminded him of his family.
Additionally, Martin provided an insight into when he underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour during the 90s. Martin said: “I’m dyslexic, when I read all the ends of the words jumble around. Mine is from an operation, taking away a brain tumour.”
He added: “For a while I lost everything, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t see. I was a train wreck afterwards.”
Away from the spotlight Martin shares two adult children with his wife Shirlie, Roman And Harley Moon, who are both currently competing on BBC’s Celebrity Race Across The World. While she doesn’t appear on TV often, 36-year-old Harley Moon is a singer-songwriter with 113,000 followers on Instagram.
Roman has been much more interested in TV work, having come third on I’m A Celebrity in 2019. Additionally, the 32-year-old has appeared with his dad on Celebrity Gogglebox and Roman’s Weekend Best!
Despite the Kemp family being one of the most popular celebrity clans in the UK, some fans may not realise Martin’s wife Shirlie is a star in her own right.
Martin and Shirlie Kemp with their children Harleymoon and Roman(Image: Getty Images)
Known for being part of Pepsi & Shirlie with Helen ‘Pepsi’ DeMacque, Shirlie and her close friend formed the group after serving as backing singers for Wham! Releasing two albums in 1987 and 1991, their debut single Heartache reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
During his time in the jungle, Martin revealed how he and Shirlie were initially set up by none other than the late George Michael in 1983. Martin even noted that he fell for his future wife after seeing her on TV.
“I’d seen Wham! on Top Of The Pops singing Young Guns, and I couldn’t take my eyes off Shirlie. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d seen. Two weeks later, we were at some VIP screening and there she was. I gave her my number, but she didn’t call me for three weeks,” he previously told The Daily Mail.
In the end it was George who convinced Shirlie to give Martin a chance and travelled alongside her to meet him for their first date. The Spandau Ballet bassist and Shirlie never looked back from there.
Prior to having their two children, Martin and Shirlie got married in front of their family and friends at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean in St. Lucia in 1988. However, they were stunned to discover they didn’t have the correct legal paperwork.
“Shirlie and I got married in St Lucia on a cliff top overlooking the Caribbean, and it was beautiful, but there was one lady there. The ceremony was about as quick as, ‘Martin, do you love Shirlie?’, ‘Yes’, ‘Shirlie, do you love Martin?’, ‘yes’, ‘you’re married’.
“We’ve never got the actual paper to say that we’re married, but listen, who needs a piece of paper when you love each other,” Martin said on Good Morning Britain.
Sharing images from the big day several years ago, Shirlie wrote on Instagram: “The man I wanted to marry @martinjkemp 31 years ago today, no wedding guests just me and you on the side of a cliff in St Lucia saying ‘I Do’ and we still Do!”
With Shirlie not often seen in Martin’s various career ventures, Shirlie previously shared her reason for not wanting to continue working in the world of music after their daughter Harley Moon was born.
“I always loved the music, but the fame, no. I was more than happy to leave that to Martin,” Shirlie told Mail Online.
With Martin and Shirlie married for 37 years and living in their Hertfordshire home on their own after Roman and Harley Moon moved out, the couple are happily navigating the latest chapter of their love story.
“What you find is when your kids grow up and they leave home, you become boyfriend and girlfriend again. You go back to the beginning and back to how you used to be,” Martin told HELLO!
