ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums - Thank you God!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the transcript I promised James. I'll scan the pictures in after Buffy and Angel have finished later on. :spin2:

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On a romantic break in Paris Big Brother’s Helen Adams and Paul Clarke speak for the first time about buying a home together.

To all the cynics who said it would never last, it has. Eight months on, last summer’s most talked about romance, between Big Brother’s Helen Adams and Paul Clarke, is stronger than ever.

On a break in Paris with Hello!, the couple demonstrate their devotion to one another as they explore the romantic city hand in hand.

In between trips to the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur, Helen and Paul enjoy wandering around the city’s gardens, sipping coffees and talking to Hello! about their romance.

‘Everything is perfect with Helen at the moment. It al feels so right and comfortable,’ Paul says. ‘She really is the girl of my dreams.'

Planting a big kiss on Paul’s cheek, Helen is quick to reciprocate. ‘I would definitely call Paul the man of my dreams, a hundred times over.’

Since the early days of their romance, Paul hasn’t hidden the strength of his feelings for Helen from the press and he was forever quoted as saying how infatuated he was with her. But, as he tells Hello!: ‘It was different saying you love someone rather than being in love with someone. In the house, and immediately afterwards, I loved Helen as a person. But to say ‘"I love you" is something else. Now I would definitely say I am totally in love with Helen.’

‘There’s no doubt about it. I feel I’ve met "the one",’ smiles Helen. ‘We were talking about it the other night and wondering what would happen if we ever broke up and were just friends. Neither of us could imagine that happening.’

So besotted are the young couple, they have splashed out on their own flat, which they moved into last month.

‘It was our mothers who first suggested the idea,’ Helen, 23, recalls. ‘I was thinking of moving in with Amma from Big Brother, but my mum kept saying it was better to buy somewhere rather than rent. Two months ago the mums said, "You practically live together anyway so you may as well move in."

‘Paul and I looked at each other and acted a bit surprised. But it was only a show as we secretly wanted it. It would have been nice moving in with Amma, but I was always thinking how cool it would be to move into a place with Paul.’

‘I had been thinking about it for a while, too,’ agrees Paul, 25. ‘But it was one of those things where I didn’t want to say anything because I’m not one of life’s planners.’

But once the plans were put into action and they found their ideal flat – the top floor of a Victorian terraced house in Barnet, North London – they settled down straight away.

‘We know how lucky we are to have a flat of our own at such a young age,’ Helen admits.

‘We do have financial security now,’ Paul says. ‘And we don’t want for anything. But my security only ever came from my car designs.’

He continues: ‘It was easy moving in together because what people don’t really realise is we’re been living together at my family home in Reading pretty much ever since we left the Big Brother house last year. So buying a place felt like it was supposed to happen. It was an easy transition.

‘We don’t actually know what it’s like not to live with each other. With my previous girlfriends I was scared to make the commitment of settling down. But ow I feel I’ve met the right person. The day we moved in I didn’t feel nervous. It just felt so normal.’

‘I suppose it is a big step moving in with someone,’ reflects Helen. ‘The first time I realised this was when we started getting letters addressed to Mr P Clarke and Miss H Adams and I though. "Oh my God, I’m living with my boyfriend in our own place."’

Helen has taken to domestic life like a duck to water. Shunning the glitzy world of showbiz, she likes nothing better than putting on her trusty Harvey Nichols pinny and rustling up a meal for Paul and their friends.

‘I’d much prefer to entertain in our own flat and chill out than go to these celebrity parties. At the end of the day, all I want to do is get home and make a nice cup of tea,’ she says in her typically down-to-earth way.

As with any couple in love, it’s hard to get a word in edgeways when they’re talking about each other. Especially Helen, whose reputation as a chatterbox is not entirely unfounded.

‘Paul is such a gentleman. He’s the nicest boy I know. He really is so genuine and honest. And, of course, he’s handsome and tall. And he makes me laugh. But what I love the best is he thinks he’s the best cook ever, when actually he’s really bad!’

Paul is quick to retaliate. ‘Helen’s the messiest eater in the whole world!’ he laughs. ‘I can guarantee that around the place mat where Helen has been sitting there’ll be thousands of crumbs, whereas there’s nothing on my side!’ Seriously, what I adore about Helen is she’s got so much energy that she’ll live until she’s a hundred. She is so easy-going and such a strong person – I really admire her for that.

‘I’ve never had to trust anyone so much in my entire life and I really trust Helen,’ he continues. ‘We’ve been through so much together and Helen always stuck up for me in that house – she was my only real ally.’

‘I feel totally at ease with him,’ Helen agrees. ‘We never really argue, though we might have the odd disagreement.’

Paul explains that their main bone of contention is the media. ‘If we’ve gone on a nice day out then walk out of a shop and the paparazzi are there, it completely spoils everything. I can’t stand it – it’s the worst aspect of our life together.’

‘When photographers jump out at us, they make me feel sick,’ says Helen. ‘It always puts me in a bad mood. When I walk down the street people will stop and stare – it’s so off-putting. I never stroll these days, I always walk fast with my eyes to the ground. And I won’t speak to newspapers anymore.’

Paul adds: ‘I don’t wish I had never done Big Brother but I wish I was anonymous. I just want to settle down and get on with it.’

So, could the next step be marriage and children? Contrary to reports, the couple aren’t engaged but marriage may well be something for the future.

‘Helen is the girl for me at the moment,’ says Paul. ‘I’d definitely marry her but I don’t find it necessary to make that kind of commitment yet. I want kids but there’s no way I would have them without marrying. I can imagine it happening some day.’

‘I’m so happy the way things are. It’s just me and Paul plodding along, living together in our little flat, which is working out great,’ Helen laughs. ‘We’ve only been going out for eight months. Maybe some celebrities marry after that amount of time, but you’ve got to remember this is a normal relationship now.’

Normality is something the couple of evidently craved ever since they received frenzied media coverage following their eviction from the Big Brother house last summer.

Their on-off relationship had viewers glued to their TV screens and, when it continued after the show, their love-life eclipsed other headline news. This intense interest was undoubtedly furthered due to the couple’s reluctance to confirm their high-profile romance.

‘We didn’t want to tell people straight away. We had to take thins slowly to see whether it would last in the real world,’ Helen admits.

‘Although in our minds we knew we were going out with each other, we needed to spend time together in private to make sure it was right between us,’ says Paul. ‘How embarrassing would it have been if, two days after leaving the house, we said we were a couple and then realised that we didn’t feel as strongly as we felt inside the house?’

But they had nothing to worry about. Over the next few weeks, although it was reported they only saw each other twice, the couple met up frequently. It soon became apparent to them their feelings for each other would survive the transition into the real world.

‘Initially. There were a lot of security stunts so we could see each other,’ Paul admits. ‘That was the most important thing. We just wanted to know our relationship was honest. Looking back we paced everything well. We did things the way we wanted.’

‘Everything just happened,’ Helen recollects. ‘But there was never a time when we said, "OK, we’re now girlfriend and boyfriend."’

Despite the press attention everything worked out for the couple, although Paul is glad he can put those days of being in the media spotlight behind him. ‘When I came out of the house it was an uphill struggle,’ he says. ‘One minute you’re a normal person then overnight everyone knows you and is interested in you.’

The hardest thing for Paul to deal with was the inaccurate reports and kiss-and-tells which surrounded them. ‘If a couple can get through ordeals like that, then they can get through anything,’ he says.

One such moment occurred when the papers ran a story that Paul had been seen getting intimate with a model. He is keen to set the record straight. ‘I was judging a fashion show in Reading, then I got a call from Helen. She was crying, saying, "What’s all this about you going out for lunch and kissing a model?" It was complete fabrication and must have been so hurtful for Helen. I sat in the car crying my eyes out. We had a brand-new relationship and all I wanted was Helen.’

‘There was a time when people accused Paul of using me and riding on the back of my success after I left the show,’ says Helen. ‘Everyone was so cynical.’

‘If people thought I acted those feelings for Helen in the house, then I deserve an Oscar,’ Paul confirms. ‘Neither was I jealous of all Helen’s publicity. I’ve never been at ease being in the spotlight and, in a way, I think I resent all the attention.

‘But I don’t wish I had never done Big Brother because I would have kicked myself for the rest of my life if I hadn’t done it. At the end of the day, I met Helen and had a unique and incredible experience. I learnt a whole lot more about life and about people.’

‘It is a good test of friendship.’ Helen agrees. ‘You could go through the whole of your life not knowing who your true friends are, but Big Brother really clarifies who they are.’

Perhaps she’s referring to her ex-work colleagues in the hair dressing salon in Newport, South Wales, and their reaction to her new-found fame? ‘Everyone had a little bit of the green-eye down there. They were jealous,’ she confirms.

Whilst Paul has returned to work in Essex where he is a successful car designer, Helen has chosen to make the transition from hairdresser to beauty expert. She currently has a regular spot on Sky One’s Lorraine show.

‘What I do now is so me. It’s all about make-up, hair and girlie things,’ se says. ‘Some days I do miss being in the salon cutting hair, but there’s nothing more rewarding than when someone comes up and says, "I watched the show and I thought it was really great." And rather than talking about Big Brother, they mean my slot on Lorraine.

‘I don’t have any great career plans,’ she continues. ‘Some people want a platinum album by the time they’re 30 but I’m not like that. I don’t feel I have to be the next Loraine Kelly by the age of 28. If everything ended tomorrow, I’d go back to the salons.’

‘Shewould,’ Paul confirms. ‘Helen hasn’t changed one bit. We’ve been through new experiences together but we haven’t changed as people or in the things we believe in.

‘My whole life involves Helen and I have a fantastic relationship with her. That’s more important than anything.’

‘We do look at each other and realise how lucky we are. As long as Paul is happy then I’m happy,’ Helen smiles.

Perhaps Big Brother’s Davina McCall should buy herself a new hat. She may be needing it soon.

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