Louise Thompson first shot to our screens on Made In Chelsea. From a complicated love life with Spencer, to the rumours about a certain Irish One Direction star and starting up her own fashion chain, the 24-year old has been busy paving her way as a cast member of the hit reality TV show.
Here Louise talks about her reservations appearing on a reality TV show, the scenes she regrets filming as well as starting out as a young entrepreneur…
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What initially made you decide to sign up for Made In Chelsea? You saw the first season, so what made up your mind to join the show? Were you nervous joining a reality entertainment show?
Yes, massively! So at school I never got on stage. I was never a performer, I was really quite shy. I was good around my friends and people I knew, but I really didn’t like being the centre of attention. And weirdly, Rosie was the exact same.
We went to boarding school together and we had a group of friends where everyone else did drama, and I definitely didn’t! Then I went to Edinburgh and obviously I had an amazing time there so I wasn’t in the first series. I dated Spencer from before, I went to school with Rosie, I knew Hugo and they were there and obviously Caggie so I was involved with that group anyway but I was busy studying. And they kept calling me and I was like “No,no,no”.
When Rosie first joined, we were all like “no,no we’ve been to a good school, we shouldn’t do something like this” and also reality TV was quite unknown. They’d done Big Brother, but structured reality wasn’t really done, not like the way we film, so we didn’t know what kind of success we’d have. So the idea of people following your lives… well I thought it was a really bad idea.
But I’d gone through this break-up and they managed to convince me. I thought ok, I’m quite spontaneous, I’m ready for something new. So I gave it a shot. I’m also pretty bad at saying no.
Everyone can relate to a lot of what you’ve had to deal with on the show, and you’re quite open with your feelings. We know there’s an entertainment element, but how hard is it to deal with heartache and break-ups while being part of a reality TV?
Well obviously there’s parts of the show made for cameras, but not the tears. I’m not that good an actress! It was really, really hard. And you’re aware then that people have seen you crying. A lot.
Did your family have reservations about you appearing on the show? I guess what people want to know is if Spencer is really that bad in real life?
Yes, he really is that bad. I’m ok now, and I don’t want to be too b*tchy about him because we get along as friends, but I just can’t give a sh*t what he’s up to. He’s a nice guy and very entertaining, but the worst boyfriend ever. He knows that as well, he knows what he does.
In the beginning he wanted to be with me and I didn’t want to be with him. Then we went out, and it was great for a bit, but then he obviously got bored and he was just too cowardly to break up with me. And obviously he just wanted the best of both. I think I was just a bit naïve to it all and it went on for just way too long. I should have just ended it much sooner.
In terms of my family, my dad doesn’t watch it. His girlfriend occasionally reads these online publications and he just finds it funny. He’s like, “so you get called shiny?”. He calls me funny names ‘cause he might see an article, and at the same time I don’t think he knows what reality TV is and I think he thinks I’m like Sophia Loren in a television show, or in a film. But my mum, all of her friends watch it, and sometimes she figures stuff out through the show that I might not have been bothered to tell her in real life.
You know when you’re not bothered and you’ve already had to go through it all anyway, and I have to talk about it so much with all my friends anyway. Unless it’s really drastic and I’m going through a really horrible time.
Actually I was back living with my mum when I went through that break-up with Spencer. And he used to be there so much, she was kind of in the middle of it all. Sam [Louise’s younger brother] is really good mates with Spencer and it was all very close to home. But now not so much – I live with my brother and mum is around the corner. She loves Alik!
I have to ask, there was Andy, and then the rumours with our own Niall Horan. Can you tell us anything about that? Are you guys friends?
No we’re not. I think that was all blown way out of proportion. He seems like a really cool guy and so far all the Irish people I meet are great. But yes, that’s it.
Following MIC:New York, Alik has moved from New York to London to be with you. How is the relationship going?
Yeah, so Alik is living in London now and things are really good. We’re really solid. I was just so happy that he moved over here. You know we didn’t know each other for that long over there and it was a bit of a nerve wrecking thing when he said he wanted to come over.
No-one has made that big a commitment to me before, and like quitting his job and stuff. It’s intense.
I just thought ok, well if things don’t go according to plan – can I back out of this? Do I have a choice in this? But like luckily everything has been pretty amazing. There has been definitely some blips. If you could watch now and catch up, you’d be thinking ‘how are you so calm in this interview right now?’
It’s definitely been complicated but, I don’t know, our bond is so strong, we’ve just kind of worked it out. We have an understanding.
So you’ve been with this show for a few years now, and we’re heading into Season 8. What’s been one of your greatest moments since joining the cast?
Well off the show, it’s great that I get to do things like this. Talking to and meeting new people, doing photoshoots, it’s crazy! Like I’m not exactly a model, I’m just a regular girl.
My life can be quite exciting. Some friends tell me, “you almost live like three lives.” There’s so much going on always that my brain can be a bit like a scrambled egg. Ultimately, I’m quite normal so those kind of experiences are surreal.
Then through the show, going to Iceland was definitely the most fun thing yet. It was like the Arctic when we went. It was so cold we were all wearing like five ski jackets. And that was when I was quite new to the show so that’s when I kissed Jamie, we all had little lodges, and Caggie and Spencer finally hooked up and everything just seemed so much more naïve back then.
And like the holidays we go on are always so much fun. New York – I just never would have had the balls to do that on my own. I’m lucky that my work is literally with a family of friends.
Obviously no-one is perfect. Is there any of your actions you regret from the show, that you wish you would have done off-camera?
I wish me and Spencer had ended things sooner ‘cause I would have saved myself a lot of grief. It went on for about a year too long. In terms of scenes, yeah, I did a scene that was like in the shower with him, that made it look like it was something really inappropriate when it fact it really wasn’t. And I just didn’t think. I just turned up and was like “What?”
So things like that are kind of embarrassing. But it’s all part of the fun.
Things I really regret are probably the relationship problems, being cheated on, making mistakes myself. I can’t regret some of that because I couldn’t control it, but there are situations that I wish I had handled better.
I wish I had thought things through a bit more than just acting so irrationally.
So there’s a new season starting. You’ve mentioned there is something that made today a little tough for you, but is there anything you can share with us – anything we should know about?
So there’s a couple of new guys. Also Lucy’s younger sister has joined, and she’s a bit younger so her and my brother are of similar age group so that’s quite nice. He’s got another friend.
My brother, he’s great. I love my brother so much and it’s really nice to have him on the show. He’s having a really good series. He’s made some new friends and when he comes home and the stories I hear. I’m in fits of hysterics.
He comes back and he’s picked up some of Jamie’s language and mannerisms and I tell him this is reserved for outside the house! I think he’s a bit more innocent than them, but then he tries to show off. He’s young and impressionable.
You’ve had great success with your Pocket London fashion range. What was your move to go into fashion?
I was in college and started the show, there was filming and university but apparently I thought I had free time. When I was studying in Edinburgh, a close friend of mine who’s actually living with me now, Ed and I decided let’s start up a hobby.
He’s very creative, and has little notepads and does little sketches and with my work on the show, interest in fashion and publicity and his creative passion it was just a good creative mix. So literally we just woke up, discussed it over lunch and then went into NatWest and set up a business bank account.
We didn’t know what we were doing but we just started setting up meetings and it’s a bit of a learning curve. We’re working it out as we go along. It’s not been easy, you just learn from mistakes a lot. We haven’t really had any help, and we haven’t really asked anyone for advice – we’re just going with the flow and that’s just really fun. After the show, it’s something I want to work on long-term and it’s nice to have that option for the long-term.
You’re here working with Magnum Minis and it’s all about the little indulgences you can enjoy. What has been your biggest indulgence buy?
I actually bought my handbag which is here today from Fendi, which is a pretty big indulgence. In terms of handbags, I’ve built up quite a good collection recently, but I buy everything from discount stores!
I’m quite savvy when it comes to shopping – I don’t waste my money. I love the Mulberry store in New York. And I’m big on accessories. I’m big on accessorising. I do a lot of research. I’m literally online and I compare prices and things.
I guess as well I like to spend my money on food, nights out, creating memories. I like buying presents for people as well. I remember buying Spencer this leather jacket from Givenchy which was pretty generous of me and now I REALLY want it back! I swear I could make something out of it!
I love making little hampers up for my friends full of treats that I know they’ll like.
You’re in the next season, and the show has been growing in popularity, but when will you know the time has come to bow out of Made In Chelsea?
I would like to do another year. Also if we got to do a series 10, that would be a nice number to end on. I don’t know, there’s times that I really wanted to quit, and I’m so grateful that I haven’t and pleased with myself that I stuck it out. While it’s still this popular, I don’t think it’d be a good move to walk away, but if I got really bored or everyone that I’m close to left, then I guess that’d be the time for me to move on.
Louise launched The Magnum Mini Screenings; a series of free ticketed showings of Mean Girls in the exclusive surroundings of Brooks private cinema. Irish cinema fans who fancy a night in at Brooks can apply for tickets to the Magnum Mini Screenings via the Magnum Facebook page.
