SHE has been through difficult and heartbreaking relationships – but when Vicky Pattison settled down with Ercan Ramadan it seemed her turbulent love life was behind her.
Pictures on the reality star’s social media show the moment the personal trainer proposed to her in Dubai last year, their trip to a fertility clinic at Christmas and romantic nights out.
But now Vicky has admitted the couple had to have relationship therapy because they “stopped making each other happy”.
Vicky, 35, says she and Ercan began to struggle after they moved into their £1.5million Essex mansion in 2019 with new puppy Milo.
She said: “It was a big stretch. I really wanted it — we really pushed.
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“As if moving wasn’t stressful enough, we got a Labrador puppy.
“We’d gone from this lovely little life in lockdown in a flat, where we were so comfortable and only had each other, to everything exploding again.
"The world was open. We had this house to pay for and this dog to train.
“We both went back to work and we just really struggled.
“We had this proper hard couple of months where it felt like neither of us could say the right thing to each other.
"We weren’t making each other that happy.
“And that is what I consider a good relationship to be — that you make each other better.
"I was talking to my life coach about it and he said, ‘You two need to go to relationship therapy’.”
Vicky admits she loves talking about her problems and says she is a natural communicator, but says Ercan, with his Turkish Cypriot roots, does not like to discuss his feelings.
She said: “I have only seen him cry once, when his footie team lost, so it was a push to get him to do it.
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"But we spoke to someone and we found it super-beneficial.
“I am a huge advocate for therapy in any form. Whatever it is that helps you work through stuff.
"We are all just trying to put ourselves together.”
Vicky has been in the spotlight since 2011 when she found fame on reality TV show Geordie Shore.
She then became a household name after winning I’m A Celebrity in 2015.
But it led to crippling self-doubt and left her feeling “lost and alone” and over a six-month period she downed up to ten drinks a day as she struggled to deal with it.
She admits she even turned up to jobs in an unfit state to work.
Vicky, who was previously engaged to fellow Geordie Shore cast member Ricci Guarnaccio and businessman John Noble, says she broke a cycle of picking the “same mean boys” when she met former Towie regular Ercan, who helped to turn her life around.
She said: “I don’t think I would have found Ercan or have been as happy as we are now if it wasn’t for some of the bad ones.
“We know we are a good match. I know we complement each other well. I do feel so grateful that I’ve found somebody nice.
“I am really lucky. Ercan is a wicked bit of kit. He is so lush.
"And he is handsome and he’s kind too.”
Vicky says she knew on their first date that he was the man for her.
She continued: “I’d had this horrible break-up and I was really low on self-confidence. I didn’t feel like myself.
“I was having a big pity party, if I am honest. We got talking over Instagram — how very millennial of us.
"And at the time there were a couple of fellas in my DMs. He was the only one that I felt this burning desire to meet.
"I am so pleased I did. I was nervous before he got there. I was tearful during the day, thinking, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’
"I’d had a dramatic break-up. And he just reached across the table and held my hand.
“It was such a simple gesture but I remember thinking it was really intimate and kind.
“I went to the toilet and texted all my mates, going, ‘F***ing buy a hat, lasses, because I am getting married to this fella’.
'Nothing is perfect'
“I can’t tell you how many dates I have been on and I’ve gone, ‘Fella was a ****head’.”
Now her seven million Twitter and Instagram followers often see pictures of the couple’s luxurious lives.
But Vicky is also one of the few celebrities who tries to show the truth on social media too.
She often includes shots of herself without make-up and explains to fans when she is feeling bloated or unhappy.
On her podcast, Vicky Pattison: The Secret To, she said: “I always try my best to show both sides of the coin, not just the f***ing Maldives with these perfect bods like they’ve got no problems.
“B*****ds. We all know nothing is perfect. That is not real life.
“The problem with social media is it has made perfect seem normal.
“And no one is interested in normal any more. My greatest pleasures in life come from the normal.”
Vicky says she prefers that to starry nights out and fancy awards ceremonies.
She said: “I f***ing hate them. My heart is pounding. The backs of my knees are sweating.
“Even if I love my outfit in the car, by the time I get there I don’t feel good enough.
"I feel like I say the wrong things to everyone. I feel nervous all the time.
"And do you know when I am at my happiest? When I get home and have a Big Mac.
“I used to have to go to these things by myself as I didn’t have a significant other. I used to drink to calm my nerves.”
Now, after their relationship counselling, the couple are happier than ever and are planning their wedding for next year.
They have also frozen embryos ready for the time they want to become parents.
But when that day happens Vicky and 39-year-old Londoner Ercan may come to blows about raising those children.
Laughing, Vicky said: “I am like, ‘We can have kids down here, Ercan, by all means’.
“‘But when they are two and they are picking up words, I want them to be back up north because I want them to sound like me’.
“But for the first time he openly admitted, he was like, ‘I can’t have a house full of people who speak like you. F***ing hate your accent’.”
Luckily Vicky knows he is in the minority after seeing surveys looking at the popularity of regional accents.
She said: “Geordie, luckily, always ends up quite near the top. It is quite musical, it has got a lilt to it.
“And I am born-and-bred Geordie. I haven’t changed a bit, salt of the earth, proud of my roots.
“I might have mellowed a bit for the sake of efficiency but all it takes is half an hour with the lasses from up north or a glass of wine and I am Jimmy Nail again.”
And if Vicky has her way, her children will be too.
