UPDATE: |Joe Swash admits parenting ‘guilt’ as spending habits exposed and says he’s ‘living in Byker Grove’ News

It comes as the former EastEnders star got candid about his purchases during the latest episode of his reality show

Joe Swash has admitted his ‘parent guilt’ as his spending habits were exposed. The former EastEnders star got candid about his purchases during the latest episode of his reality show.

Fans will know that Joe and his wife Stacey Solomon opened up their home to the cameras for the very first time last year for their own BBC One programme, Stacey & Joe, which has been airing on a Tuesday night since April 1.

The show follows them as well as their children in what has been described as a “refreshing, honest take on their modern blended family”.

In recent episodes of the BBC show, Joe has opened up about his struggles with his recent diagnosis with ADHD and it was during the latest on Tuesday evening (April 22) that he discussed the condition being at the heart of his online shopping habits on Amazon and TikTok shop, much to Stacey’s disapproval.

“I literally spend my life sorting people’s lives out and then I have to come home and sort my own life out… ’cause the whole of Amazon has turned up at the door…” the Loose Women star remarked.

The topic was broached as Joe headed to record an episode of Tom Price’s My Mate Bought a Toaster podcast, in which celebrities willingly hand over the keys to their Amazon and TikTok shop accounts before Tom trawls through their purchase histories.

Tapping into Joe’s Amazon account, it was clear to host Tom Price – also diagnosed with ADHD – that the condition was very much at play when picking apart his catalogue of hilarious impulse purchases, not least a ‘watermelon growing mould’.

Tom remarked: “There’s a lot of stuff on here… so much stuff, you’re buying stuff everyday Joe! I’ve done 120 episodes of this… no one’s ever bought a watermelon growing mould…”

Joe replied: “Oh that was amazing! Have you not seen them?” before he excitedly shared: “Stacey’s got into gardening, she’s like a young Charlie Dimmock at the minute! She’s growing stuff, vegetables and cucumbers. I saw once that someone had grown a watermelon into the mould of Donald Trump’s face, and I loved it.

“I bought a square one and a heart shaped one, but weirdly Stacey said she thought it would be a bit cruel to the watermelon to have it grow into a shape… so we haven’t used it yet, but it’s there… it’s one of those things where the idea was better than the actual thing.”

He added: “A lot of these things… I see them coming up on my live feed and it’ll tickle my fancy! I’ll look into it and it’s only £3… I can do £3… that’s the problem! Anything under £10 I can take a punt on… sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

In the latter part of the episode, the I’m a Celebrity winner reflected on how many of his online purchases are linked to his wanting to support his children’s hobbies and new interests.

Although in the latest episode of Stacey & Joe’, Stacey wasn’t as convinced as she quipped: “You can’t keep blaming the kids… you can’t spend your life buying s**t on Amazon and saying it’s all the kids fault…”

In the My Mate Bought a Toaster episode, Joe shared what could be behind his impulsive purchases for his children, having lost his own father at the age of eleven.

“I’m overcompensating for something that I never had as a kid, I’m overcompensating for the risk that one day something’s going to happen, and I’m not going to be here anymore, that uncertainty..” the dad-of-four emotionally explained.

“I really like to do things, live things, breathe things, experience things now instead of putting them off a little bit because you never know what tomorrow’s going to bring. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah… it’s not a great way to say goodbye to the kids in the morning,” Tom joked as Joe went on: “Parent guilt comes in all different forms and sizes, and I think I suffer from all of them! The one thing you want to do is be a good parent, you know, you want to set your kids off on the right path, you want your kids when they get older and they’re adults to have fond memories of when they were kids.

“So, I think a lot of the stuff that I do, I do for the kids…” Joe continued. “Generally, the kids at the moment are my hobby, they’re not going to be this age forever… you know, in a couple years’ time, I’m not going to be the ‘cool dad’ I’m going to be an ‘embarrassing dad’…”

He added: “Ijust feel like you’ve got to live these little moments.. I really enjoy being with my kids. I enjoy that time you spend together, memories that you’re making… I’ve got such great memories of my dad, not a lot of them, but some really good ones. So I just want my kids to have as many good memories.

“So I do buy a lot of things… like I will look at something and I will attach a memory to that, so I’ll look at those little ducks (that you put on the end of your finger and catapult), and in my mind, I can see me and the kids running round the house shooting each other…

“Stacey going mad because someone’s been shot in the eye… you know, I can see it, so I almost buy these things so I can see what I’m going to get from them”

Tom joked: “You’re running a youth centre,” to which Joe quipped back: “We basically live in Byker Grove, yeah!”

My Mate Bought a Toaster with Joe Swash is available to listen to now.