Celebrity Big Brother’s Chris Hughes Defends Bond With JoJo Siwa

Watch: JoJo Siwa Comes Out as Queer on Celebrity Big Brother UK

Chris Hughes is sharing his love for JoJo Siwa.

On the April 25 finale of Celebrity Big Brother UK, Chris addressed rumors that the pair may be developing a romantic connection after viewers saw them kiss on the cheek, cuddle in the house and give hugs of support.

However, Chris, 32, clarified that his love for the 21-year-old is platonic.

“We’re just messing around—we’re being kids,” he said of their physical affection. “JoJo was like a pure rock to me. She was someone I can have fun with.”

In fact, Chris went further in defending their dynamic, sharing, “From a friendship point of view, yeah, of course I love her.”

“Why would I not want to get on with people when I’m in a house?” he continued. “If I want to spend time with a person who makes me feel like I’m at home, makes me feel happy and forget that we’re filming a TV show, we’re having fun, I’ll do that—because that’s very normal. It was just a friendship, which is only going to get stronger.”

During the episode, JoJo also shared insight into her bond with her fellow contestant after the pair raised eyebrows over their close relationship. 

“Christopher, the love that I’ve gained for you in this building is insane,” the Dance Moms alum told him. “You’re a one-of-a-kind gentleman, somebody who is so easy to love, so easy to laugh with. I really, really believe you are a vital part of my life that I didn’t know I was missing.”

JoJo—who has been dating Kath Ebbs since last year—added in a confessional, “He’s very special. By far the best thing to come out of this experience. He feels like family.”

And Chris certainly feels the same about her.

“This experience has been mind-blowingly special,” he said in a confessional. “We all love each other. That’s the beauty of this. I love JoJo a million times over. She’ll always be a person in my life.”

And the Love Island alum told her as much. 

“JoJo, my darling, what an absolute sweetheart,” he said. “I feel like you’ve been my person, like, just unbelievable, and the way I’ve got—”

After getting choked up, Chris added, “I’ve gotten emotional—like, you’ve made my life a million times easier when it’s been tough, and you’ve made my good days even better as well. And I love you for that.”

And for JoJo, their connection is just one of the ways she has been forever changed by the experience. She previously confessed that her time on Big Brother helped make her realize that she’s not lesbian, but rather queer.

“I feel, like, so queer, do you know what I mean?” she told housemate Danny Beard during the April 22 episode. “I think that’s the thing. I’ve always told myself I’m a lesbian, and I think being here I’ve realized: ‘Oh, I’m not a lesbian, I’m queer.’ And I think that’s really cool.”

Read on for more details on JoJo’s love life.

For then-17-year-old JoJo Siwa, Aug. 1, 2020, was a beautiful day to reveal the identity of her boyfriend—the man who managed to trump her crushes on Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey and Zac Efron

“He’s amazing and I couldn’t have imagined anyone better,” the Dance Moms alum gushed to mom Jessalynn Siwa of the musician. 

But by that November, the pair were no longer in harmony. 

“Mark doesn’t deserve hateful things like this,” Siwa wrote on Instagram, defending her recent ex. “He deserves to have people support him. You have NO idea about mark and I’s relationship. how much fun it was. how happy we both were, and how happy we both are. We decided it’s best for us to not be in a relationship…. that’s all.”

Leon Bennett/Getty Images

What started as a friendship when Siwa met Kylie Prew on a 2020 cruise, truly set sail a year later when “I got to start calling this exceptional human my Girlfriend,” the reality star shared on Instagram in February 2021. 

Siwa also credited “the most amazing, wonderful, perfect, most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world,” with encouraging her to share her true self. Having already filmed content with Pride House, a collective of LGBTQ+ TikTok creators, and a TikTok of herself dancing to Lady Gaga‘s “Born This Way” anthem, the reality TV vet was debating whether she wanted to share a pic of her new “Best Gay Cousin Ever” shirt

“I was like, ‘I kinda just want to post this picture on my Reels story,’ and she was super encouraging,'” Siwa detailed on The Tonight Show. “She was like, ‘Do it!’ And I was like, ‘All right,’ and I did it.”

Though the pair moved in together (“Looking back, all of us are like, ‘That should’ve never happened,” Siwa admitted on the Call Her Daddy podcast in April 2024), they split that October, reuniting for one final dance in 2022

Prew is still her “good friend,” Siwa told Call Her Daddy‘s Alex Cooper, noting they talk “all the time.” 

“I am not single and I don’t want to mingle,” Siwa shared on a March 2022 episode of the Rachel Uncensored Podcast. “No, I’m a loyal lady.”

She’d played the field, she continued, and snagged herself a catch in Katie Mills

“Listen, I went around the block,” Siwa teased. “I tried a lot, and I learned a lot and I’m very, very, very happy where I am now.”

But safe to say her romance with the TikToker wasn’t all fun and games. 

When Siwa posted a March 2023 clip calling out “love bombing” and “clout chasing” behavior from unnamed exes, Mills dropped a few bombs of her own

“I’m done being quiet,” she said in her own TikTok that month. “You hold a lot of power, you and your platform. How can you tell someone you love them and ghost them the next day, and then post all over the internet that we’re clout chasers and love bombers? I don’t get it.”

What’s more, she continued, Siwa was the one to make their romance public, while Mills asked permission before posting any glimpses into their love. And, stressed Mills, “I have the text receipts to prove it, so don’t come at me.” 

Safe to say Avery Cyrus—the YouTuber Siwa briefly dated in 2022—hasn’t claimed a spot at the top of her pyramid.

When they celebrated their 12-day anniversary, the singer said life together was a D.R.E.A.M. “Our personalities mash together so well, and I think that’s something that is really important,” Siwa told E! News that October. “She is so positive. She makes me feel so good. I believe that I make her feel so good.”

But the vibes changed that December. Two days after Cyrus confirmed they’d ended their romance, Siwa cryptically called out a person who she said took advantage of her fame. 

“I got used, for views and for clout,” she griped in a Decemer 2022 video that her mom shared to her Instagram Story. “I got tricked into being told I was loved and I got f–king played.”

For Cyrus, though, their dalliance wasn’t a game. 

“From my perspective, me and JoJo left on great terms and are still friends,” she exclusively told E! News in a statement. “The relationship was very real, and I have nothing but love for JoJo and her family.”

Dakayla Wilson may have placed second on season 18 of So You Think You Can Dance, but she was No. 1 in judge Siwa’s heart. “Girlfriend taught a dance class so i took a weekend off of being JoJo Siwa and became her All Star Assistant,” the “Karma” singer gushed in an August TikTok, hard launching their relationship

For several months, Wilson proved to be the perfect dance partner, with Siwa sharing that the teen was “on board” with her plan to have triplets in the near future and eagerly dropping $30,000 on her 19th birthday celebration in Hawaii

“We are very madly in love,” the former Nickelodeon star gushed to E! News. “She is a very, very special girl. I’m very lucky to have her in my life.”

But it turned out that Wilson wasn’t all Siwa wanted for Christmas. 

“We have gone our separate ways, but she is an amazing girl,” Siwa told People in November 2024. “And I got my own fun holiday plans, and I know she’s got her family that she’s spent the holidays with.” 

Siwa confirmed her relationship with Kath Ebbs in January 2025, calling the Australian content creator her “girlfriend.”

Kath also returned the love, posting photos of the pair kissing that same month. They wrote on Instagram, “Bit of queer joy for ya feed today!!”

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