Move over Barbara Cartland! She’s the posh reality star who won I’m A Celeb — and befriended Boris’s dad. Now, Georgia Toffolo has become an unlikely (and rather risqué) Mills & Boon author
- Georgia Toffolo, 25, has turned Instagram into her main source of income
- Boasting 1.8 million followers, she charges around £5,600 per sponsored post
- Former reality TV star has recently signed a four-book deal with Mills & Boon
- Georgia revealed the inspiration behind her new novel Meet Me In London
Georgia Toffolo click-clacks along the corridor in her lemon high heels — £19 from Zara, but they look more expensive. ‘Don’t they, just?’ she squeals in delight.
‘Are they not beautiful?’ Georgia loves Zara and would promote its clothes for say, £200 per post on her Instagram feed, but the firm never ask her, so she does it for free anyway.
She’s got 1.8 million followers and confirms a recent report that she makes around £5,600 per sponsored post. ‘It’s in that ball point,’ she says in her best, most solemn business voice, but I know what she means.
Insta has been a godsend now her main source of income since she left the reality show Made In Chelsea and went on to win reality show I’m A Celebrity in 2017, where she struck up an unlikely but enduring friendship with jungle campmate Stanley Johnson. She also appeared on Celebs Go Dating, but that’s about it for that lark, thanks all the same.
Georgia Toffolo, 25, (pictured) who won reality TV show I’m A Celebrity in 2017, revealed the inspiration behind her new novel
‘I don’t want to be the girlie who just does the rounds and flits to different reality shows. It doesn’t appeal to me,’ she says, although she has also appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox, Celebrity Hunted (with Stanley again), Celebrity Snoop Dogs and My Famous Babysitter. She has turned down Dancing On Ice — a girl must have her standards — but would consider Strictly ‘if they ever asked me’.
Toff, as she is known, is an unabashed Conservative voter. Her role on these shows seems to be that of wacky Tory totty, right down to her ongoing crush on Jacob Rees-Mogg, who she describes as ‘a sex god’. She also has a soft spot for David Cameron. ‘I loved him, I thought he was brilliant.’
She was still a boarder at Blundell’s School in Devon during the 2010 election, and got into trouble for hanging a Vote Conservative banner from her dorm window. ‘I wrote to CCHQ and asked them to send me one,’ she says. Bless her!
‘I did politics for my AS level and I got a D, which was a shock because I thought I was really good at politics,’ she says. ‘So then I had to drop it.’
Why did she get a D?
‘I don’t know. Maybe I was talking about ideological stuff?’
Boris Johnson follows her on social media, she is friends with Carrie Symonds and I must say it is refreshing, nay thrilling, to see someone who is not Ann Widdecombe speak about the Tories on a TV entertainment show without the usual sneering.
For this, of course, Toff has been punished. ‘Oh the tweeting I used to get! When I first came out of the jungle, it was all: “I cannot believe I like you, you Tory t***.” It was trolling tinged with a bit of kindness, which was strange.’
She has done some TV presenting, primarily on This Morning, but that wasn’t a huge success.
Boasting over 1.8 million followers on Instagram Georgia (pictured), revealed she only promotes things that she likes
So she is extra grateful for Instagram because it has kept her earning throughout lockdown. She has paid partnerships with clothing firms along with beauty and skincare brands.
‘I only promote things I like,’ she says, but that is what all influencers say, isn’t it? ‘I’m not really an influencer, I’m more of a dasher.’ What’s that? ‘A celebrity dash TV personality dash ambassador dash influencer.’
On a typical social media day, Toff will be scouring her three packed wardrobes in her four-bedroom rented house in Chelsea (of course) and asking herself; what is the vibe, what is the mood?
Most of her Instagram work expresses the spiritual crisis and existential struggles of a 25-year-old, size six blonde who can’t find the right handbag to go with her hot pants while sharing her innermost thoughts with fans. ‘This sounds weird,’ she posted recently, ‘but dry brushing before I get in the bath and writing a gratitude list bring me so much joy.’
In the churn of this all-consuming culture, where everything from major life experiences to new bras is rendered down into clicks for cash, the Toff bubbles away like a hot tub full of pop, like a cache of fizzing bath bombs. She is often irresistible, always cheerful, forever hoping to create a ‘hub of positivity’.
Georgia who has known Stanley Johnson for three years, said she hasn’t spoken to him about his relationship with Boris’s mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl. Pictured: Georgia and Stanley Johnson on TV’s I’m A Celebrity
‘Do you like it? I get really embarrassed, Jan.’
Why? ‘I think people say: “God, will she shut up for a minute.”’ However, there are many things Miss Toffolo doesn’t share online or want to talk about, including her woo-woo mysterious love life and, at the moment, her darling Stanley Johnson.
In a new biography of Boris Johnson, author Tom Bower has claimed that the Prime Minister’s father had a tempestuous relationship with Boris’s mother, the artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl.
In the Seventies, it is said that Stanley hit her and broke her nose, an attack that required hospital treatment. Charlotte claims her marriage to Stanley was unhappy, while he admits an incident occurred, but he was only ‘flailing’ at his wife at the time, which she disputes.
‘Bloody hell. It is shocking. I just texted Stanley, he called me earlier. I haven’t spoken to him. I haven’t discussed it with him and I don’t wish to. Stanley has just been a really wonderful friend and I have relied on him so much.’
Is she defending him?
‘I have only known Stanley for three years, I adore him. About this, I don’t know what to say.’
Perhaps we should just stick to clothes. Today, Georgia is wearing a pale blue trouser suit made of recycled plastic and a ruffled white blouse worn back to front.
Georgia (pictured) recently signed a four-book deal with romantic fiction specialists Mills & Boon, with the first novel Meet Me In London set in Chelsea
What is the vibe, what is the mood, girlfriend? I’m thinking uniformed cocktail waitress on the Starship Enterprise, serving up Vulcan snacks to Mr Spock.
Speaking of which, we finally clickety clack into our meeting room, where socially distanced refreshments await. ‘Wheee sandwiches!’ she cries and throws herself into a chair.
We are here to talk about the latest exciting chapter in Georgia Toffolo’s career, which is that she has become an author!
Oh yes, readers, she has.
Toff recently signed a four-book deal with romantic fiction specialists Mills & Boon, which is pretty remarkable, considering her claim that the longest piece of writing she previously produced was a 2012 essay for Conservative Home on voter apathy. (She must have forgotten about Always Smiling — The World According To Toff, a self-help book published two years ago.)
Now she has just published Meet Me In London, the first of a quartet of novels featuring the adventures of four gal pals who once endured a Terrible Accident together, but are now getting on with their lives and falling in love with sundry billionaires, as you do.
It is set in Chelsea (of course), where much of the action seems to take place in the haberdashery department of a Peter Jones-alike store, where a full-breasted heroine dash seamstress dash barmaid dash teacher called Victoria wanders around fingering bolts of luscious satin when she is not tutoring underprivileged children.
Georgia (pictured) said she didn’t want to come across as if she’s talking dirty all the time, but she now thinks that the book could’ve benefited from having more sex
The hero is called Richard, whose muscles strain through the linen of his shirt and — brace yourselves ladies — that is not all that bulges. On page 254, she writes: ‘She pressed her body back against his and felt the hard length of him.’
‘Well, I didn’t want to use willy or d**k,’ she says. ‘It is not Fifty Shades Of Grey. And it wasn’t full-on bonking, it was just a light dusting of hanky-panky.
‘I didn’t want it to come across like Toff’s talking dirty all the time, but now I think, s**t, I should have put more sex in. Given it that little fun edge.’
Still. I mean. Come on. His… length?
‘I think when you are alluding to someone being a little bit — I cannot believe I am using this word with you — horny, there are so many different ways to go about it. I just didn’t want it to sound cringe.’
Does he (cringe) touch her breasts? ‘I don’t know. I can’t remember. Yeah, he must do.’
Of course, Toff didn’t really write this book, she ‘co-authored’ it with accomplished chicklit author Louisa George.
‘But it is my storyline and it is imbued with me,’ she says, and it has certainly captured something of her youthful effervescent spirit. How did the collaboration work? ‘I would start writing a paragraph and highlight it and say, you know what, we could have something here, but I would need help.
Georgia (pictured) said she spent 90 minutes each morning working on her book, after being inspired by the books of Jilly Cooper and Sophie Kinsella
‘I struggle a bit with my sentence structure and, sometimes, write how I speak. When you speak you say things verbally which isn’t right, so Louisa would fine tune it.’
Did you write the synopsis?
‘Yeah. Big time.’
She thinks readers will be surprised that she has chosen infertility as one of her themes, especially as ‘none of my close friends have been trying for babies yet. I had to really research this.’
How did she do that?
‘I don’t know. Me and Louisa talked about it. It was sensitively written, you know.’
Has she ever tried for a baby herself? ‘Tried for a baby? Christ no, not yet! Sex is just for fun at the moment.’
For six months, she would write for a whole 90 minutes most mornings, inspired by the books of Jilly Cooper and Sophie Kinsella, while dreaming of her favourite characters in Richard Curtis movies ‘like Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, you know, men who would whisk you off your feet.’
In her own life, she likes her men ‘dark and dangerous’.
‘I like a man about town, but also with a sense of duty,’ she says, which makes it sound like she is looking for a beat policeman.
Georgia revealed she’s had two serious boyfriends in her life and despite being madly in love at the moment, she likes to keep her relationship private. Pictured: Georgia and Stanley
‘For me, I just find ambition and drive very, very attractive. They don’t always have to be tall and dark, but they have to be intelligent. I like a man who looks really good in a sharp suit.’
Well that seems to rule out Stanley and possibly Jacob, too, but you never know.
She reckons she has had two serious boyfriends in her life, no nasty break-ups and is madly in love at the moment, but she likes to keep that private.
‘I am incredibly happy, I have never been so happy and I feel it is important to protect that,’ she says.
There have been so many dire warnings from Toffolo’s PR team over asking about her personal life that one wonders what all this fraught secrecy is meant to hide. It makes me think, my God, maybe it really could be Stanley? Surely not Jacob Rees-Mogg? The most likely candidate is George Cottrell, a rich posh boy who was once Nigel Farage’s right-hand man and recently spent eight months in a U.S. prison over a money-laundering scandal.
Newspapers reported earlier this year that the couple had become engaged, but Georgia remains uncharacteristically sphinx-like on this subject.
‘I’m sorry,’ she says, shaking her head. Maybe the reason for keeping this putative romance quiet is more pragmatic and simple; a jailbird such as George might damage her lucrative online brand and put a crimp in her supply of free lipsticks.
Georgia (pictured) who was born in Torquay and later lived in Elephant & Castle, found her big break on reality TV show Made In Chelsea
Speaking of which, Georgia finishes her chicken sandwich and applies a fresh coat of Coral Kisses lipstick, gifted by a brand called Morphe. ‘They do the most amazing colours,’ she says, and she only says it because she means it.
One of the many amazing things about Toff is that she is not really posh at all.
She was born in Torquay, where her car dealer father and her mother split up soon after she arrived.
Her mother has since married and divorced and Georgia bears her maternal grand- father’s surname, while her hairdresser grandmother still cuts and colours her hair.
At the age of 16, she moved to London for a summer, not to live in swanky Chelsea, but to the grittier Elephant & Castle, where she stayed in a friend’s flat, worked in a shop (‘I got paid tuppence, but I loved it’) and drank underage at a swanky nightclub in the West End.
‘Well, I drank a little bit. I have always been quite sensible. I love a glass of wine, but never seem to get really, really p***ed.’
Made In Chelsea was her big break, back in the days when her sex life and romantic attachments to a various chinless wonders were laid bare in a reality show watched by half a million people.
Since then, she has tried everything in the fame game except acting. ‘Well. I am so bad at it. And people would just think there is that blonde wally, now she thinks she can do acting.
Georgia said she spends her entire life trying to prove to people that she’s not a dim blonde. Pictured: Georgia and Stanley
‘I am always shocked when people think we are trained actresses on reality television.’
They think that?
‘Yes! And most of us on Made In Chelsea wouldn’t be able to learn a single line of a script.’
She is rather disparaging about herself, but there is a layer of steel underneath.
Anyone who saw her eat kangaroo testicles or get showered with spiders on I’m A Celebrity knows that. And despite her ditzy conversations and gurgling giggles, she is not quite as silly as she seems.
‘I spend my whole life trying to prove to people that I am not a dim blonde,’ she says.
‘I won’t give up because I think people like me, we just have so much influence and it might not be the influence that people look up to, but I think we shouldn’t just be thrown by the wayside because we have done a certain TV show or because of the way I probably dress my hair and what I look like.’
Just then a name flashes up on her phone. Thankfully, it’s not Stanley again, it is her mother. ‘Poor Mummy. She’s worried about me,’ says Georgia, and taps out a reassuring text.
Then, just like in her novel, onwards we skip, towards the finale that no spoiler can ever ruin, to where the glass slipper always fits and to where fictional heroes Richard and Victoria and real life Toff and Mr X will all live happily ever after. At length. The End.
Meet Me In London by Georgia Toffolo is published by Mills&Boon on October 15, available in paperback, eBook and audio.
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