Meet the full line up of Your Mum, My Dad
Meet the FULL line up of Your Mum, My Dad: A therapist, postman and a PE teacher will join six other singletons in the quest for true love
Love Island is known for its fame-hungry twenty-somethings, oiled up and clad in string bikinis.
But ITV’s latest batch of love hopefuls are older, wiser and slightly more covered up.
My Mum, Your Dad [MMYD] will see nine contestants aged between 44 and 58 including a postman, a PE teacher and a therapist appear alongside their adult children who have nominated them in hopes they will find love.
And rather than sunning themselves in a Spanish villa, they will be roaming the gardens of a West Sussex mansion.
The show is the brainchild of Davina McCall, who is presenting, as she wanted to see contestants ‘who’ve lived a life’ and show mid-life people looking for love that ‘not all is lost for them’.
Love: My Mum, Your Dad will see nine contestants aged between 44 and 58 including a postman, a PE teacher and a therapist appear alongside their adult children who have nominated them in hopes they will find love
Reality TV: My Mum, Your Dad will air on weeknights from September 11 but will only last for two weeks (the parents are pictured with their matchmaker children)
Dubbed the ‘Middle-Aged Love Island’, parents will undergo dates and bonding workshops while unknowing being watched by their children from an out-house with ‘pillows over their faces’ in embarrassment.
Entering the mansion will be postman Roger, 58, PE teacher Elliott, 53, pastoral support officer Clayton, 57, and Decorator Paul, 51.
The women joining them will be relationship coach Natalie, 44, tech advisor Caroline, 51, welfare officer Sharon, 53, and therapist Monique, 50.
Cameras will not be in the bedroom as Ms McCall said: ‘For me, personally speaking, I’d rather watch the hint of love, a moment of tenderness, something amazing. That’s so exciting but like… shagging?
‘It’s sort of like once you’ve seen… it doesn’t mean anything. This means f***ing something.
‘When you see people falling, you know this is serious. That’s so lovely. But yes, there are moments where the kids have got cushions over their faces. They’ve never seen their parents in a date situation.’
Instead of a competition motivated by prize money- Love Island’s premise – there are no eliminations or voting out and the children decide when it’s time for their parents to leave.
Ms McCall said: ‘I thought one of the most moving things was this idea that as a child you can’t move on with your life until you feel that your parent is happy.’
The 55-year-old presenter, who recently moved in with her new boyfriend the hairstylist Michael Douglas, started crying when speaking about looking for love in mid-life.
Dating: Caroline, 51, from Scotland is one of the first contestants to join the show
Single: Elliot, 53, from Essex was nominated by his son Zachary, 21, who wants his father ‘to be happy and do what others his age have; get married and settle down’
She said: ‘I just wanted to see mid-lifers represented in dating and that second-time round thing.
‘Often what happens in your forties and fifties, is you’ve got children and things are complicated but more than ever you feel like you’re at that point in life where you deserve to find love.
‘You want to open the door and come home to someone and they do deserve that.’
Davina also spoke about the difficulties of dating in your 40s or 50s, admitting that struggles with confidence and self-esteem don’t get any easier as you get older.
She said: ‘It doesn’t get any better as you get older, sometimes you can rationalise it more, but it’s still there. We witness that a lot, and you are willing them, someone to go and talk to them about it.’
The former Big Brother host confessed that many middle-aged singletons struggle to understand dating apps, making it harder for them to find their second loves.
‘We’re of that generation where apps are weird, we don’t know how to do apps,’ she said. ‘Like “what do you mean you’re still talking to 17 other people when we’re going out?”, I don’t understand how that works! It’s hard isn’t it!’
Dating: My Mum, Your Dad has been called ‘the middle aged Love Island’, and Davina said she unintentionally gave the programme its nickname and has been trying to ‘burn’ it ever since
Funny: My Mum, Your Dad will see single parents live in a large country house, as unbeknown to them, their kids (pictured) watch every moment and play matchmaker from a nearby bunker
Concept: There is no prize money up for grabs at the end, with Davina telling how ‘the prize is love’ as she insisted there is nothing ‘cynical’ about the show (the parents are pictured)
Davina went on to describe the show as a ‘dream come true’ as she spoke about how she has always wanted to see middle-aged love represented on primetime TV.
She said: ‘When I walked in, I was literally beside myself. Firstly because it was like a dream come true to walk into an entertainment TV programme, primetime ITV, and see my people.
‘A bunch of mid-lifers, who all look really cool, really fun, culturally at the same place in life, we all understand each other, second time-rounders. It was really brilliant to be in a room with those types of people.’
My Mum, Your Dad starts September 11 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. The series will run on consecutive weeknights for two weeks.
My Mum, Your Dad: Meet the single parents and their matchmaker kids!
Meet the parents … and their matchmaker kids!
Name: Monique
Age: 50
Location: Winchmore Hill
Profession: Therapist/student
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Kind-hearted, a believer in God and positive. I radiate love!
Why did your daughter nominate you for MMYD? To dip my toes back in the pool of dating, and try and connect with someone and find love, and experience living with other people again.
Name: Sharon
Age: 53
Location: Sunderland
Profession: Safeguarding and welfare officer in education
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Fun, genuine, personable.
Why did your daughter nominate you for MMYD? She was getting desperate! I’d lost all confidence in myself. I think for Tia she was wanting to give me a bit of a helping hand.
Name: Caroline
Age: 51
Location: South Lanarkshire
Profession: Tech advisor/scan assistant at a private baby clinic
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Charismatic, outgoing and fun. I can be a bit fiery at times!
Why did your daughter nominate you for MMYD? I’ve been single for such a long time, it’s probably the longest I’ve ever been single! I’ve always been quite happy being single but I think she thought, ‘Mum, you need to get out there!’
Name: Natalie
Age: 44
Location: Bournemouth
Profession: Self-esteem and relationship recovery coach
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Adventurous, deep and outgoing.
Why did your son nominate you for MMYD? I’ve been on my own for a long time. I think he thinks it’s my time for me now.
Name: Paul
Age: 51
Location: London, lives in Bath
Profession: Owner, decorating company
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Very chilled, laid back and loyal.
Why did your daughter nominate you for MMYD? She feels I need to sort myself out when it comes to dating!
Name: Clayton
Age: 57
Location: Nottingham
Profession: Pastoral support officer
How would you describe yourself in a few words? I’m pretty effervescent. I’m all about balance in terms of fun – I’d say there’s a cheeky side to me.
Why did your son Christian nominate you for MMYD? He’d like to see me settled with someone I could have a future with.
Name: Roger
Age: 58
Location: Derbyshire
Profession: Postman
How would you describe yourself in a few words? Fun, loving, conscientious, struggling to get old – I don’t want to get old. I lost my wife, I know that you can get up and life can be over in a split second.
Why did your daughter Jess nominate you for MMYD? She’s a lovely girl. Her mum was really thoughtful in everything – she could plan things to a detail – and Jess has got that. She is so thoughtful and it was just a lovely thing for her to say, ‘Dad, look, we understand that you’re struggling and it’s been hard and we know that you’ve got a lot of love to give and we’re OK if you were to see someone else’.
Following my wife passing 18 months ago, I didn’t really want to meet anyone. You don’t expect it to be you and you don’t expect it to be your wife. But I’m going on the show to get some confidence. I must have subconsciously wanted to meet someone by saying yes to the show.
Name: Elliott
Age: 53
Location: Essex
Profession: PE teacher/football coach
How would your son describe you? He’d say I am good fun, easy going (I’m not easy going).
Why did your son nominate you for MMYD? He wants rid of me! I think the prospect of me being in his life for too much longer was a burden. No, he just wants me to be happy.
Name: Taiya
Age: 21
Location: North London
Profession: Student
Why did you nominate your mum to go on the show? I nominated my mum because I think she deserves love! She’s put everything aside to raise me and my sister for so many years so I thought now is my mum’s time.
Name: Tia
Age: 24
Location: Sunderland
Profession: Social media influencer
Why did you nominate your mum to go on the show? I feel like it’s finally her time to be happy. I think she’s put herself on the backburner to bring up myself and my sister. In the last few years I feel like she’s given up on love, so she didn’t want to try anymore. I hope putting her forward will be the push she needs to put herself first.
Name: Karli
Age: 20
Location: South Lanarkshire
Profession: Flight attendant
Why did you nominate your mum to go on the show? She was single for a while and she doesn’t seem to have any luck with guys. So I thought why not?
Name: Kaliel
Age: 20
Location: Bournemouth
Profession: Gas and plumbing apprentice
Why did you nominate your mum to go on the show? Because I wanted her to find someone and be happy. I saw it advertised and I thought it would be perfect for her.
Name: Mazey
Age: 21
Location: Bath
Profession: University Student
Why did you nominate your dad to go on the show? I want to see him settled. The way he was dating before wasn’t working. I wanted him to date outside of the box.
Name: Christian
Age: 35
Location: Nottingham
Profession: Graphic artist/warehouse employee
Why did you nominate your dad to go on the show? I just want him to settle down, find the right person – he’s getting on now! I want him to live life with someone. I want him to travel with someone and get out there.
Name: Jess
Age: 28
Location: Derbyshire
Profession: Network rail planner
Why did you nominate your dad to go on the show? It was a joint thing with my brother and sister and it was our way of basically telling him that we were happy for him to start dating, if that was something he wanted to do.
It was a cop out on our part really, as it meant we didn’t need to sit down and actually say it. It was a sneaky way of saying, ‘Oh look at this, do you want to look into this?’ Never actually expected anything to come of it.
It was about putting dad first. We’d never really thought about us, or about ourselves in that situation. I wasn’t thinking about how I’d react, I was thinking about him.
The reason for that is he does the same for us, he would always put family first. So it was just a way of saying to him, stop worrying about us. If he wasn’t ready, that was also totally fine. It wasn’t an ultimatum. It was just, if you want to, you can, don’t worry about us.
Name: Zachary
Age: 21
Location: Essex
Profession: University student
Why did you nominate your dad to go on the show? He deserves a chance to be happy and he hasn’t had that. I want him to have what a lot of his friends have done; get married and settle down. He deserves the opportunity to find the ‘end stages’ of love.
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