THEY are the ultimate couple goals – and now GK Barry and Ella Rutherford have given us a VERY candid insight into their romance.
In our exclusive Valentine’s Day chat, the loved-up pair talk falling in love, stereotypes and baby plans.
THERE aren’t many couples who move in together straight after their first date and actually manage to go the distance.
But that is the case for I’m A Celebrity star GK Barry and her footballer girlfriend of two years, Ella Rutherford.
And it’s despite the fact that, until she met Ella, GK – or Grace Keeling to give her real name – had only ever dated men.
“It was straight away,” Grace says. “Ella slept over on the first night. No shagging!
“I had a photo shoot the next day, and I said: ‘Guys, I’m in love. I found my wife.’ Obviously, they all thought I’d lost my mind. But we couldn’t be apart.”
The pair were introduced in 2024 through a mutual friend, after 26-year-old Grace asked to be set up with someone with “amazing calves”.
We get messages all the time saying we’ve helped people come out
By this stage, Grace already had more than 4 million followers on TikTok, drove a Porsche and owned a house – but Ella had no idea who she was.
Ella, 25, explains: “Grace’s best friend was dating a man that I randomly met on a cruise. It was just mad that he knew her, and then she followed me. I had to ask my sister who she was, and she said: ‘She’s hilarious. Watch her TikToks.’ Straightaway, I was like: ‘Well, that’s a box tick.’”
After sliding into Grace’s DMs, Ella asked her out on a “sip-and-paint date”, where you paint while having a drink, before moving into Grace’s house in Surrey that evening.
Their longest time apart was when Grace joined the line-up of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity. . . Get Me Out Of Here! a few months later.
Viewers loved her have-a-go attitude and no-holds-barred chats with Reverend Richard Coles, but she was desperately missing Ella, and vice versa.
“The jungle was really hard,” Grace says. ”Some people come out and go: ‘Didn’t even miss you,’ but it was the complete opposite for us. It brought us closer.”
“It wasn’t good at all,” Ella agrees. “I basically had a mental breakdown.
They took Grace’s phone for the week before she went into the jungle, so we had our contact cut, and I was really struggling.
“Grace’s make-up artist Lielle Neury tried to make me feel better by taking me to a crystal shop to get all the vibes. I said: ‘I need a crystal for someone that I’m missing,’ and the woman in the shop held my hand and said: ‘It’s OK, they’re still with you.’ And Lielle was like: ‘She’s not dead!’ I’m in the shop crying, but actually she was very supportive and I got my crystal – although it didn’t do anything.”
Having come fifth on I’m A Celebrity, GK’s star hasn’t stopped rising.
She has won a new legion of fans with her down-to-earth personality after joining the Loose Women panel, and is seen as having star potential by ITV bosses.
But while she’s used to being in front of the camera, it’s a bit more out of the ordinary for Ella, who – as an attacking-midfielder for Portsmouth – prefers to be on the pitch.
Our cover shoot is a real pinch-me moment for the couple, as it’s the first they have done together, and one they feel is hugely important for visibility.
Ella explains: “When I was growing up, I had trouble dealing with my sexuality. I think if I had seen a lesbian couple like us, that would have really helped. So it’s nice to be in that role of being able to help the younger generation.”
Grace agrees. “I’d never seen a lesbian couple growing up. I always thought lesbians looked a certain way and you had to be quite masculine. So I was like: ‘Well, I’m definitely not a lesbian.’ But it’s not about how you look. We get messages all the time saying how we have helped people to come out. It was a big thing after I’m A Celebrity, because in there I talked about how I came out to my parents.”
She adds: “I’ve got loads of messages saying how it gave parents an understanding of how to deal with that situation.”
It’s been like a religious experience dating Ella
GK Barry
Before Ella, Grace had only dated men, while Ella was more open about her sexuality, having come out to her mum when she was 16.
“It’s been like a religious experience dating Ella,” Grace reveals. “I did know in past relationships there wasn’t that ‘thing’. There was something missing. And then obviously when I found Ella, I was like: ‘Oh! That’s what it was.’ It’s just completely different when you’re with a woman.”
Ella admits she did worry that it might not be long-term with Grace, because it was her first gay relationship.
“At the very beginning, I thought: ‘She’s going to wake up and realise I’ve got a pair of tits.’ Honestly, that was my first thought. Then I thought: ‘No, this is the real s**t,’” she says.
Grace laughs. “We did have that conversation: ‘Yes, I do know you are female and I am very happy being in this relationship.’”
It’s interesting that so many female footballers, including a number of the Euros-winning Lionesses team, are out and proud, whereas there doesn’t seem to be the same level of acceptance when it comes to male players.
Ella says: “There’s a lot more visible lesbians within women’s football, so people are comfortable with being in that environment. I hope it will get to the place with the men’s game where everyone can be their true authentic self, because if you’re good at football it shouldn’t matter.”
After Grace welcomed her girlfriend into her world of photo shoots and presenting – the pair hosted a BBC Radio 1 show over Christmas – Ella says she would like to see Grace give football a go.
But before she’s let loose on the pitch, does the star know the offside rule?
“All I know is that if you want to buy a dress and there’s someone in front of you and there’s a cashier, the cashier has to hand you the dress. You can’t go in front of the person,” she says, as Ella puts her head in her hands.
I wore miniskirts to games to bring some Victoria Beckham energy
GK Barry
She continues: “So the answer’s ‘no’. I don’t have a clue. I prefer to be at bars than at football games. I always go to Ella’s home games, though. I’ve got my football mums I sit with. We go to the pub beforehand for prosecco and they tell me the gossip.
“When I first went, I thought: ‘Everyone knows I’m going to this match,’ so I was in miniskirts, trying to bring some Victoria Beckham energy, but it was freezing! Now I’m just there in my tracksuit.”
And does having her girlfriend in the stands improve Ella’s game?
“Actually, to be honest, during the game I’m so in the zone,” she admits.
“But I do enjoy coming to see her after the final whistle. Grace says to me: ‘You’ve done so well, babe,’ and I know that she has no idea what the hell is going on.”
Since it is the day after Valentine’s, we have to ask who is the most romantic of the two of them. “I am,” Ella declares. “I buy the flowers. I believe romance is an all-year-round thing.”
Romance struggles
Grace, meanwhile, admits she struggles to bring the romance. “I used to think quality time was when you’d watch TV together, but it’s not that. So we go out of our way now to do things together. Food is our love language.”
It’s no surprise – given that Grace made her name through her sense of humour resonating on TikTok – that the secret to the pair’s strong relationship is laughter.
“We are like best friends as well as partners,” Ella says. “She is the most beautiful girl I’ve seen, and I’m not just saying that because she is sat here. She’s also funny, really kind and has a warm heart. When I have a stressful day at work, as soon as I come home I leave it at the door because I know she will either make me laugh or talk to me for hours!”
But while they are smitten with each other, the two do row like any other couple. In fact, Grace had to do Dry January after she got so drunk on New Year’s Eve that she fell asleep and missed seeing in the New Year.
“She was a very naughty girl,” Ella explains. “But it has been good for her. I’ve seen a change in her behaviour. I sound like her mum, but she is more productive and has a spring in her step instead of being hungover and lying in bed rotting.
“We bicker about the silliest things. Our favourite thing to argue about is washing. I’ll go to football and say: ‘Grace, there’s a wash there. It’s all laid in piles. Can you put it on?’ I’ll come home, it won’t have moved, but she’ll say: ‘I’ve cleaned the door handles.’ She’ll do everything but the washing.”
The bickering hasn’t stopped them planning their long-term future together, though. They have agreed that since Ella asked Grace to be her girlfriend, it is up to Grace to propose.
“Yes, because Ella asked me to be her girlfriend, I said I would pop the question,” Grace confirms.
“I would like to, but I want her to have no clue. I want to make it just so special. I’d like to have control over when it happens, because I need to have my glam done!”
Ella is so amazing with kids – she would be a great mum
What would a Keeling/Rutherford wedding look like?
“We did speak about having a small wedding abroad and then coming back for a bigger party,” Ella reveals. “But then we thought: ‘F**k that.’ So we’re going to have it here. We’ve found a venue.”
Grace adds: “We drove past this venue, and I said: ‘Ella, that’s where we’re going to get married.’ She was like: ‘Yeah, I love that.’ It was down a little country lane. We’re gonna have outfit changes. I’ve got a really small family, so it will be a majority of Ella’s family. It will be quite small. We don’t ever want to look back at our wedding photos and be like: ‘We don’t speak to them any more.’
“The dogs have to be involved, too, as they are our world [the pair share toy poodle Noodle and Korean Maltese Sherry-Baby, while Grace has a dog called Kimchi]. By the time we get married, I hope we live in a big house with lots of dogs. We love dogs, but they’re a big responsibility,” says Grace.
“Ella is so amazing with kids, so she would be a great mum. Me, not so much. I just say ‘slay’ to them all the time.”
“Having dogs is like having kids without the backchat,” Ella says. “We’d like children, but I don’t think that’s in our near future. I have a lot of nieces and nephews in a big family, so I like to have the kids and then give them back. We are so happy at the moment, and we are just enjoying being with each other.”
- Stream Saving Grace on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts