It was in a grey brick building in London’s trendy Marylebone district that, after more than a year, Spencer Matthews was finally reunited this week with his former best friend Jamie Laing.
The pair were together at the HQ of Jampot Productions – Jamie’s company – to record an episode of rich-kid Spencer’s podcast Untapped. Spencer has thrown himself into this solo project after model wife Vogue Williams apparently told him he had to ditch Jamie from their double-act show, 6 Degrees, last year.
Spencer and Jamie’s coming together has, I’m told, raised eyebrows among those who know them.
Only you’d never have known that if you were listening to their oh-so chummy recording, where they attempted to put any rumours of a controversial bust-up to bed. They clearly believed their combined millions of fans would fall for their ridiculous claim that their feud lay in the fact that Spencer did not attend the finishing line of Jamie’s ultra-marathon in Manchester after he had run 150 miles for Comic Relief back in March.
This was quite the feat: Jamie had jogged all the way from London’s Chelsea Town Hall, raising more than £2million in the process. Celebrities including the pair’s Made In Chelsea co-star Oliver Proudlock, The Traitors winner Leanne Quigley and Radio 1’s Greg James all surprised him by cheering him along on the gruelling route.
Directly addressing the rumours about the end of his once-brotherly bond with Jamie, Spencer – himself quite the runner – said: ‘Your challenge, for the record, was a really beautiful thing to watch. I didn’t snub your challenge at all. I know that you’re not expecting soppy [online] posts from me either because I don’t ever do those.
‘I felt that it was all a bit jagged and just not true or fair. I congratulated you at the end… There’s a reason I wasn’t there: I wasn’t invited.’
Jamie responded: ‘No, no, they weren’t – people just turned up at the finish line. I didn’t invite them.’
Made In Chelsea stars Spencer Matthews and Jaime Laing were all smiles in 2012 – but their friendship has since been tested
Spencer, 37, proceeded to argue that the BBC must have invited people to surprise Jamie at the finishing line.
Jamie, for his part, insisted he had no idea that certain people were coming and was concentrating so hard on completing his epic challenge that it was the only thing he was thinking about.
Case closed? Perhaps not. I have heard that the true reason for their falling-out lies in events that allegedly took place at Jamie’s wedding to his fellow Made in Chelsea star Sophie Habboo, 30. The pair had a legal ceremony in London before a lavish wedding party in Marbella.
‘They were like brothers: Spencer was master of ceremonies at the wedding and they were joined at the hip and always there for one another,’ says my source – who, unfortunately for the pair, knows what really happened.
‘It is the talk of their friendship group now that they have fallen out, it’s very mysterious. Jamie’s run is perhaps the biggest thing he’ll ever do in his life. Surely he must have been missing his friend [at the finish line]?
‘You now have to wonder whether it is at all connected to the escapades at the wedding. Whatever went on, it caused a lot of friction between people and arguably overshadowed Jamie and Sophie’s wedding, and is still being referred to among their unforgiving circle.’
Spencer Matthews did not attend the finishing line of Jamie’s ultra-marathon in Manchester
Many people in the showbusiness industry contacted me yesterday to share their questions about whether these two men, who have been in the public eye for more almost 15 years, are telling the truth that a mere marathon ‘snub’ is what tore them apart.
Instead, I am told that an ‘incident’ involving Spencer took place at the stunning mansion in Sotogrande on the Spanish Andalusian coast where Jamie wed Sophie.
With wife Vogue 1,500 miles away and looking after her and Spencer’s three children, the event became the talk of the wedding, which boasted a guest list including MIC royalty Ollie Locke, Emily Blackwell and model Lottie Moss, who had previously dated their co-star Alex Mytton.
Whatever went on, it seems to have caused a lot of friction between various people and, arguably, overshadowed the event.
Jamie Laing insists he had no idea that certain people were showing up to cheer him on
Lottie has always denied the rumours that anything untoward took place, though has conceded that she and Spencer did ‘party together’ after rumours spread on WhatsApp that the pair had got together behind Vogue’s back.
Meanwhile, it’s really rather sweet that Spencer found separate solace in an unexpected friendship with BBC star Paddy McGuinness’s wife Christine while they were appearing on Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales in 2024.
You have to wonder what Vogue thinks of all of these headlines. Spencer recently ditched Money Management, that he shared with Vogue, in favour of a more ‘showbiz, glamour’ representative at YMU – the home of ITV’s Ant and Dec.
‘There’s a lot going on with Vogue and Spencer at the moment,’ says one friend of the couple. ‘Having three young children and busy working lives is hard.
‘Then he goes and leaves their management company and then gets back in with Jamie. The whole thing stinks.’
And as one friend of the Made In Chelsea circle put it to me last night: ‘How very ironic that Spencer made that podcast just around the corner from one Lottie’s favourite hangouts, Chiltern Firehouse.
‘There are so many coincidences in all of this.’