Joel
I met Hannah on Instagram after I came out of I’m a
Celebrity [Joel was runner-up in the 2016 series]. She
hadn’t watched the show but saw me doing an interview
on This Morning and sent me a message. It was the cat
with heart-eyes emoji. It’s mad coming out of the jungle.
I went from 11,000 followers to 350,000. I remember
going through the direct messages, not knowing if I was
meant to read them all. She always jokes that she was
just at the top of the pile. I clicked on hers. We started
chatting and I was blown away by how funny she was.
We had our first date a few days later. She didn’t stop
talking. She’d go off on weird tangents for ages and I
would sit there silent. I remember thinking, “My God,
this is incredible.” I was so jet-lagged. I kept yawning
into my mouth. I had a coffee at 11pm. I thought I’ve got
to stay awake because this date is amazing. I desperately
wanted to ask her to go somewhere else, but a big part
of me was saying, “Joel, go home, you keep yawning.”
We did end the night with a kiss, though.
Our second date involved her waiting for me while
I was on [the panel show]The Last Leg and basically she
had to spend more of the evening talking to Lionel Blair
in the green room than with me. But it showed what a
good fit we are; she understands me having to pop off
to do something for work. And her career is the same.
I genuinely don’t know where I got the comedy gene
from. Even in school I wasn’t the usual comedian cliché
of class clown. I grew up on the border of Bristol and
Gloucestershire. The postcode changes in the middle
of our garden. I’m no man’s land. I belong to nobody.
I moved to London at 19 and thought I was going to be
an actor, but I’d learn the lines, get good in my bedroom
and as soon as I auditioned I’d fall apart. I ended up
trying comedy at 21 to overcome my nerves. I had a
friend who did open mikes. He gave me a list of gigs to
do and said don’t wait for people to give you them, just
turn up. It’s still the advice I give to people now.
I first performed stand-up on television on Russell
Howard’s Good News in 2011. I thought I’m going to
make it, I’m going to be a star. You have no idea you’ve
still got so many years ahead of you before anyone
cares. I had all this energy to get rid of so I got on my
bicycle, rode around London with my headphones in
listening to Les Misérables and singing it really loud.
By the time I did I’m a Celebrity I was doing lots of
stand-up and slowly moving up the ranks. But I wasn’t
getting on the shows a lot of my friends were on, like
Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats. I went to Melbourne
Comedy Festival and saw a comedian called Joel Creasey.
He’d won the Australian version of I’m a Celebrity and
hosted the extra show. I sent an email to my agent
RELATIVE VALUES
Joel Dommett and Hannah Cooper-Dommett
The comedian and Masked Singer host and his model wife on being up for a laugh
saying it feels like the standard route isn’t really working
for me. Maybe we should start saying yes to some of the
reality TV offers. I’ve been working solidly since.
I feel lucky I got the Masked Singer presenting job.
For one of the first times in my career I’m a round peg
in a round hole. It’s so silly, it fits my comic persona.
I don’t know who is under the mask either. Morten
Harket, the lead singer of A-ha, was on once. I knew
there was a lead singer of A-ha but I didn’t know his
name. The producers told me but I couldn’t for the life
of me remember. All I could think when I was
interviewing him was it’s not Morgan Freeman.
After a year of us being together I proposed.
I wanted to ask Hannah to marry me and I needed an
ending to the book I was writing, so made that the final
page. Luckily she said yes. We got married in Greece in
September 2019 with my friend Iain Stirling officiating.
It felt like we were on Love Island. We had 29 people, no
plus-ones. Since then we’ve had the pandemic and
Hannah’s mum has been ill with a brain tumour.
Looking back it feels like a real bookmark in life where
all the people there were happy and healthy. It was
genuinely the happiest day of our lives.
Working with Hannah on the podcast has
completely changed our relationship for the better.Main: Hannah, 31,
and Joel, 36, at
home in Surrey.
Inset: at their
wedding in Greece,
September 2019“`n our first date he said he was
6ft 2in [they are both 5ft 11in]. He
counts his fringe in his height”
6 • The Sunday Times Magazine