THOUGH she is still in the honeymoon stage of her relationship, Ferne McCann is taking no chances when it comes to keeping the spark alive in the bedroom.
One in four of us confess that we get a greater feelgood kick from TV than sex, a recent poll found. But former Towie star Ferne and fiancé Lorri Haines are wise to that.
She says: “We don’t have a TV in our bedroom, we’ve put a TV and phone ban on so that when we get into bed we can fully connect and have conversation . . . or sex.”
Ferne, 32, and Lorri, 30, who have been together for seven months, got engaged in July this year during a getaway to Paris.
Lorri, a real estate agent and jeweller, who lives in Dubai, has a son from a previous relationship. Ferne, from Essex, has four-year-old daughter Sunday by ex Arthur Collins, who in 2017 was jailed for 20 years for an acid attack at a London nightclub.
Sunday was born the month before her father’s sentencing, and shortly before that Ferne had left Collins — but she never gave up hope of finding her happy-ever-after.
‘I’m a hopeful romantic’
She says: “I’m very hopeful. If you become hopeless, that’s giving up. I wouldn’t call myself a hopeless romantic, I’d call myself a hopeful romantic — I’ve just never given up on what I’ve always wanted. I haven’t got a victim mentality.”
Of life with Lorri, she adds: “We are looking forward to blending our family. Lorri has a son, I have a daughter, and they are our main priority.
“When I met Lorri, I was very straight up with him. After a lot of failed relationships, there were certain things that would keep me back.
“But the golden ticket is when you can be unapologetically you, and lay all on the table — it puts the ball in their court: ‘Take it or leave it’.
“You claim back this power and control — ‘I’m confident in myself that I am who I am’.
“And whether that person does want a second date, or fancies me, is on them.
“Through the ups and downs of relationships, I have learned so much and done so much self-development — as has Lorri and we found each other at the right time. We are open to listening to each other and not just having massive, unspoken expectations.
"We are trying to work together, and I don’t think I’ve ever done that in a relationship. I manifested Lorri because I knew what I wanted after my journey of ups and downs in relationships.
“I manifested him because I surrendered to my love life. I was like, ‘You know what? What will be, will be’. I’m focusing on my daughter and my career, and he walked into my life.”
The pair have a joint vision board where they write down what they want in life, to help them achieve their goals.
Ferne says: “It’s at my front door so it’s the first thing that I see when I walk through the door and the last thing when I walk out.
“I’ve got a joint one with my fiancé, which I know is a bit cringe. I’m very much into alternative therapies and just trying to be at your best and live your best life.
“Me and Lorri could have a little bicker over something — like the air fryer, for example — and then we have to work through it. What makes it healthy is that we are willing to work through it.
“I find relationships interesting. You know, you’ve had different upbringings, you fancy each other, but now you want to live together — and it’s how you manage that.
What makes it healthy
“But I’m really enjoying it, and I think that’s what makes it healthy because I’m enjoying doing it with Lorri and I want to do it with him.”
The savvy mum also tells how she has stopped using her oven, in favour of the air fryer, to try to live a more sustainable and cost-effective life.
She says: “Mum has always told me to turn the lights off. So I am using less electricity, and turning things off at the plug. We are cutting back on heating.
“And food waste is out of the question in my house. We use absolutely every-thing. We use our freezer. So we’re making these small steps to make a difference.”
Speaking as an ambassador for a food bank network, Ferne adds: “I definitely worry about family members, and about my local community, with the cost-of-living crisis.
“And I worry about the future for my daughter and the future for our children. As a mother, I want to teach my daughter where the world is at, and where the country is at.
“I often joke with some of my friends, ‘Should we just go and live on a commune and grow our own crops and let our children be feral?’ That sounds quite appealing.
“It’s scary the way the world’s moving and it’s the simple things and the simple values that I connect with quite often to keep me grounded and feel calm.
“I would love to one day have chickens. I like to shop locally and sustainably.
“I know it’s not always convenient for people, but where I can . . . It’s not just about what we are consuming, but also I’m massively stopping with the amount of things that I buy.”