It is a sunny Thursday at the end of June, and the team have just finished photographing Sophie Habboo. Sitting down in the suite at The Langham where we have been shooting the cover, she tucks into a pear as we begin the interview. “Sorry, this is really rude of me,” she exclaims, “but I’m starving.”
The podcaster and TV personality has a busy weekend ahead, so I’ve promised to be quick. “We’re going to Glastonbury tomorrow,” she tells me. “Jamie is working there, and I am going in tow. We’ve got lots of friends there – it’s going to be so much fun. I’m excited for Dua Lipa, Coldplay… Shania Twain is going to be huge. I feel like I need to get loads of things done before we go though, but then, actually, do I? I mean people are just very messy at Glastonbury, so does it matter what I look like?” A weekend of camping does seem a little incongruous for the former Made in Chelsea star. “We should be in one of the tents that’s already set up, it’s organised by the BBC, so I’ve kind of left it with Jamie. But I think I’ll have a pillow, at least!” She laughs.
Sophie wears; top and skirt by Christopher Esber at Koibird
Sophie met her husband Jamie Laing, now a presenter on BBC Radio One’s Going Home show, when they were both appearing on E4 reality TV show Made in Chelsea. “I went to Newcastle Uni, and me and a lot of my friends used to get Facebook messages asking us to go on the show. Obviously, we knew about it – it was very big at that time – but I was doing my degree, so it wasn’t something I could do,” Sophie tells me, recalling how her part in the show came about. “I came to London after I graduated, and I was still getting asked. Initially I was interning at Annabel’s, the private members’ club, I was a PA, but it was an internship, and it wasn’t going to be forever, and I just thought, maybe I should go to the interview. So, then I went for the interview, and then I was like, oh, you know, maybe I should just try it…”
It was a good decision, the job not only introduced her to her future husband, but also proved to be a great experience. “You get to travel the world and you have no responsibilities, and the filming is just fun and silly. But it wouldn’t have worked with us being in a relationship on it. When I left, it was definitely the right time for me to leave.”
Sophie wears; Blazer and shorts by The Frankie Shop; belt by Khaite; and necklace and rings by Matilde Jewellery
The pair tied the knot in front of close family and friends at Chelsea Registry Office in April last year, before walking down the aisle for a second time the following month at a lavish ceremony in Spain, and in the lead up to the celebrations, they shared the highs and lows of their journey to the altar in a podcast called NearlyWeds. It proved so successful that it was rebranded as NewlyWeds after the wedding; each Monday the couple reveal everything that has been going on in their relationship – and absolutely nothing is sacred, even deeply personal things like Jamie’s sperm count. “We’re just like airing all of our dirty laundry for millions of people to hear,” she laughs, when I ask about the podcast.
Does it ever make her feel awkward discussing personal matters? “I think at the beginning I was very naive to the number of people who actually listened. So, I sort of thought, OK, well whatever, if it’s something embarrassing, or something too raw, no one is really going to listen. And then I slowly realised that actually – which is amazing – a lot of people do listen,” she admits. “But seeing the listeners’ reactions to us being so raw and authentic – they’ve loved it – and it just makes me realise, you know, that is kind of the way forward. And I don’t really know how to be any other way, so…” she shrugs.
Sophie wears; dress by Magda Butrym; and rings by Matilde Jewellery
Earlier this year, the pair took the podcast on the road for a series of live dates across the country. “We loved it!” She tells me. “We took my dad with us, we had Jamie’s mum with us, my sister was doing my make up, my mum came to some of the shows, it was a real family event. It was just so much fun. And the listeners… it was so surreal being up there, we did the Apollo in Hammersmith two nights in a row, with like 7,000 people in the audience. It was crazy, and there were big queues, and it was really wild to see how loyal our fans are. It was actually a bit daunting at first. We were so nervous, and then you slowly, slowly get used to it, and you realise what works and what doesn’t work. I think it was tricky trying to navigate preparing for a show that can’t be rehearsed; we have to be authentic, and we can’t script it. Obviously the more and more we did it, the more we got into the flow, and it felt really good. At the end, I was like, oh my God, I don’t want it to be over, so we will definitely do it again, for sure, but there are no firm plans at the moment.”
“I think it’s really CATHARTIC – we get all of our PROBLEMS out. You know, we both live BUSY lives, and it gives us two HOURS every week to sit down and actually TALK about things”
Sophie wears trench coat by The Frankie Shop; boots by Paris Texas; and earrings and rings by Matilde Jewellery
NewlyWeds isn’t Sophie’s only podcast, she also records Wednesdays with fellow Made in Chelsea girl, Melissa Tattam. “It’s authentic, and it’s very real… It’s the same as NewlyWeds, but it’s me and my best friend, and the listeners write in, and we read out their dilemmas – that’s what it’s about,” she explains. “I love doing both of them. NewlyWeds has been, well… working with your husband can be challenging! But it’s great. And with Wednesdays I forget that there are cameras or a microphone there, I’m just sat with my best friend, gossiping.”
There are plans afoot to take Wednesdays live, too, but in quite a different way. “Our Wednesdays listeners are very, very, very loyal and they are like a little family. We’ve actually got a subscription – so listeners can sign up for extra episodes and they really get the nitty gritty bits, it’s almost like behind-the- scenes stuff. And with that there’s a WhatsApp group that we’re all on, and we talk, and they will get first access to this live event.” So, what’s planned? “It is going to be really interesting; I think there’s about 200 tickets going out. It’ll be more intimate than a live show – we’ll just sit and have brunch with the girls, or boys, you know, whoever comes, and talk about their dilemmas. We’ll be giving advice in person, along with some lovely drinks and food and party bags and all of those things, in a lovely venue, so it should be really cute. And that’s going to be this summer.”
Sophie wears; dress by PH5 at Koibird; shoes by Identità; and necklaces and rings by Matilde Jewellery
Both podcasts are produced by JamPot Productions, a media company owned by Sophie and Jamie. “We do a few other podcasts,” she tells me. “We did one called NearlyBaby, and it had Ollie and Gareth in it, two guys who got married and wanted to have a surrogate baby, and it was about their journey with having these twins. And then we’ve got Jamie’s new podcast, called Great Company, which is Jamie interviewing guests – he’s had Paloma Faith on, he’s had Elizabeth Day, loads of other people. It’s really good. We’ve got Now We’re Talking Baby, which is Cam and his wife Emily, and they have just had their baby, and again it was like the journey to parenthood. And there’s a few others in the pipeline.”
It all sounds very exciting – how much involvement does Sophie have with these other projects? “I am a director in the company. We have producers, and we’ve got a really amazing team at JamPot,” she explains, “and so I will sign things off, and, you know, get involved, but we have very creative employees who come up with the ideas and sort of fine tune the structure. And then they’ll bring us those ideas, and we’ll say whether we like it, or whether we think it will be a good idea.”
Speaking of idea development, I wonder whether there are any changes planned for either of Sophie’s own podcasts. “More of the same,” she assures me. “Jamie and I recently bought a house, which we are so excited about, because we’ve spent two years looking for this house. So, I think, naturally that will become a big part of our lives, and we’ll be talking about that. We’re going to be renovating it, and I’m sure that NewlyWeds will sort of move in that direction, and we’ll bring the listeners with us on that journey. You know, like what wallpaper we’re choosing – all the highs and lows of buying and renovating a house… because my God, is it stressful!”
Sophie wears; suit by De La Vali; and necklaces and rings by Matilde Jewellery
Sucker as I am for property and interiors talk, this is music to my ears – so, what can Sophie tell us about what they have planned renovation-wise? “The house doesn’t necessarily need work doing, I just think that we want to bring something of ourselves to it,” she shares. “Our aim is to be in by Christmas, so we’ve got a good couple months ahead of us. I love interiors, I love looking at all the different things, but it’s quite overwhelming, all of the options out there. Just trying to align Jamie’s tastes with my tastes… ultimately, I think we will probably just go with what I want,” she laughs. I can’t say I’m overly surprised by this admission.
The new house is close to where the couple already live, in Notting Hill, something that Sophie is very happy about. “It’s not far from where we live now, so yeah, we’re really happy with it,” she tells me. She waxes lyrical about her neighbourhood, so it follows that they are keen to stay local: “Portobello Road is amazing, there’s loads of little markets. There’s a jewellery shop called Jessie Western, which is amazing, there’s Lovers Lane Vintage, it’s got all these vintage designers like Roberto Cavalli. So, I love that too. Yeah, those are my favourite places. I like Sumi in Westbourne Grove for sushi. All my local restaurants, like Gold, I just love. They have got good vibes, they’ve got good drinks, they’re like cool, cosy… But there are just so many great restaurants in London generally. We’re spoilt for choice, aren’t we?”
She might not be a Londoner originally (she was brought up in Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire), but Sophie has very much adopted the Capital as her own since moving here. “I love everything about it,” she tells me, enthusiastically. “I love the buildings, I love that there’s just so many interesting people, doing all sorts of different things. You can go anywhere and get amazing cuisine, the best food ever. I love Harrods and Selfridges – if I’m in a bad mood, you just put me in there and I feel so calm and happy… And I feel like anything goes in London really – you can do anything you want. I’m a big fan; I think nowhere beats London in the summer.”
Well, almost nowhere… “I have really excitingly got loads of my friends getting married this summer,” she reveals, when I ask about summer plans. “They’re all doing it in pretty cool venues. So, I’m going to Lake Como, and lots of fun things like that, which is really exciting. We’re going on holiday with Jamie’s dad. There are lots of fun things in the pipeline. I feel very lucky; I’ve got a very nice summer ahead of me. But I will also be spending a lot of time in London.”
Her perfect summer day in the Capital? “I would wake up, go to the gym, go grab an ice coffee. If I had something on, I would try to walk to it, put a podcast on and walk to that venue. Then, after that, I love going to Granger & Co for brunch – I’d get some avo on toast, some eggs (I’m so basic, it’s embarrassing). And then, you know if I wanted to see my friends, go to a nice beer garden and sit with them there. Go for dinner afterwards. Go sit in a park – Hyde Park, Kew Gardens, stunning. All of these gorgeous places.” Indeed, but first, Glasto…
