Pete Wicks has dismissed speculation he's having an affair with Zara McDermott while her boyfriend Sam Thompson is on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, admitting finds the cheating rumours 'quite funny'.
The TOWIE star has been spending a significant amount of time with the Love Islander over the past few weeks, with the pair being spotted together on social media on several occasions. Zara, 26, and Pete, 35, have appeared in an Argos advert on their respective Instagram accounts and have also chatted about Sam's stint on the gritty ITV reality series on the Staying Relevant podcast.
"Me and Zara find it quite funny," he told New magazine when asked about the backlash. "That's the problem with social media everyone's got an opinion. Sam is my brother, and Zara is a very good friend of mine. We just laugh about it." Pete, who has been best mates with Made in Chelsea's Sam since they met on Celebs Go Dating in 2018, then admitted that Zara is not his type and that he can't imagine a relationship between them ever working out. "I absolutely adore Zara, but she's not my cup of tea and I don't think she'd last five minutes."
Pete went on to hail Sam's romance with Zara, telling the magazine, "They're such a great couple and I love them to bits. It's just sad that people can't understand that girls and guys can be mates. It's ridiculous."
Pete recently hit headlines for taking a swipe at Zara over her Strictly Come Dancing 2023 experience, which was cut prematurely after she became the fifth contestant eliminated along with her partner Graziano Di Prima. "We didn’t realise how bad she was at dancing," he quipped.
Amy Childs prepared to get cruelly mum-shamed after big decision about her twinsSpeaking about being away from Sam while he's in Australia, Pete admitted he's been missing his chum and struggling to get on things without him: "No, to be honest, weirdly I actually am, and I didn’t think I would. The first week was lovely, I really chilled out and it was nice to have a bit of peace and quiet but now I don’t really know what to do with myself."
It's likely Zara, who has been dating Sam since May 2019 after she slid in his DM's, is also longing for the 31-year-old's uplifting company. Sam, who recently shared his ADHD and autism diagnosis, revealed earlier this year that he plans to propose to his beloved partner at some point in the future. "I need to get the engagement sorted, but I don’t know when that would be. She [Zara] is filming two documentaries, she has Strictly coming up and so much on her plate. I am so proud of her," he told the Sun in September.