'You're never going to find love...' First Dates star Fred Sirieix didn't think he would find his soulmate after he split from Alessandra Spendolini
First Dates' maître d'hôtel Fred Sirieix did not think he would find love after he split from his long-term partner Alessandra Spendolini.
Fred Sirieix feared he would "never" find love again after he split from his long-term partner Alessandra Spendolini.
The maître d'hôtel on Channel 4's First Dates enjoyed a 12-year romance with Alessandra - who he has his 20-year-old Olympic diver daughter, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, and his 16-year-old son Lucien with.
But before he met his 50-year-old wife Fruitcake - the name his spouse goes by - in 2018, Fred thought he would be single for the rest of his life.
Asked if he worried that he would not meet the right person, he told the new issue of TV Times magazine: "Of course!
"When you go through a break-up, you think the sky is falling on your head and you're never going to find love.
"We all have back stories and baggage - things that didn't go so well, things that are constantly nagging us at the back of our mind because we've been traumatised by this or that.
"All the people in the First Dates restaurant want another chance at love.
"We can all relate to it because we've all been there. But ... Fruitcake said yes!"
Fred, 53, revealed he and Fruitcake argued a lot before they got hitched at Pattoo Castle, Negril, Jamaica, in February.
He admitted: "The wedding took so long to organise.
"It was so much work and there were so many arguments and tantrums, but it was amazing!
"We spent a week in Jamaica and had drinks for everybody on the beach two days before with Red Stripe and jerk chicken.
"Then the wedding happened, and then we had another party two days later.
"It was very small, lovely and intimate."
Fred met Fruitcake when they passed each other on the street in Peckham, London, and they instantly bonded.
He recalled: "We went to a local place in Peckham and had some bar food.
"There was lots of eye contact and smiling. It was really electric and supercharged because we were so attracted to each other.
"We were on fire ... and we did kiss on the first date!"
And Fred loved surprising Fruitcake with a romantic getaway to the South of France for her 50th birthday in 2024.
He said: "Last year, it was Fruitcake's 50th, so I organised a surprise trip for her in the South of France, going around Nice, Cannes and Marseille.
"It was beautiful."
