Ian ‘H’ Watkins on his new children’s book, CBB memories and the Steps musical’s future (EXCLUSIVE)
The Steps star spoke with us about how his children helped him create his new book and how he reflects on the madness of Celebrity Big Brother 2007
By Gary Grimes
Ian ‘H’ Watkins has been in the public eye for nearly 30 years, and over the course of those three decades he has worn many hats.
He rose to fame, of course, as a member of the UK’s pre-eminent cheesy pop group Steps, and later one half of H & Claire with fellow Steps member Claire Richards. He went on to enjoy a successful career as a musical theatre and pantomime actor, as well as returning to screens for memorable appearances on reality shows – including a stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house alongside Shilpa Shetty and the late Jade Goody. He came out as a gay man via The Sun the same day he entered the house in 2007.
In 2020, he was the first celebrity in the history of Dancing On Ice to compete within a same sex couple, competing with professional partner Matt Evers. Along the way, he became the father of two twin boys, and now, with a little help from his sons, he has added another string to his bow – children’s author. Watkins’ first ever children’s book, entitled Pride and the Rainbow Warriors, comes out today and will serve as an educational tool to teach children about the LGBTQ+ community, Watkins says.
To mark the book’s publication, we caught up with Ian to chat about how the book came together. We also got his take on Dancing On Ice‘s cancellation, his memories of the Celebrity Big Brother race row, and what’s around the corner for Steps…
Hi Ian! Can you tell us a bit about how Pride and the Rainbow Warriors came together and what inspired you to pursue this?
It’s something I’ve wanted to do for many years, but I seriously started working on it about five years ago, in between feeding my children, making sure they were dressed on time, and doing the school runs. There’s a real lack of education and resources in schools for children of all ages and young people. We organise Pride in our town, Cowbridge, just outside Cardiff and it’s so important. Pride allows you to be open about yourself, without being judged, in a safe space where everybody is celebrating their uniqueness. I wanted a book to explain what Pride is, not just to LGBTQ+ people, but to our allies or people who are questioning. So it’s an educational and celebratory book, and it’s all about how your superpower is your difference.
How does it feel to be bringing this very joyful product into the world at such a challenging time for the community, when we’re seeing local Prides get cancelled due to a lack of funding, or LGBTQ+ books even being removed from shelves in some parts of the world?
That’s really key – it’s joyful. It’s not directly targeted at the LGBTQ+ community. It’s an educational book. Queer people have always existed. We are existing and we will always be here. So you can’t just erase us. This is an educational tool and it’s really important, more than ever, like you said, right now, where a very powerful minority are dictating to a joyous majority. It’s really, really scary.
You’ve done so many things in your career, and this is another string to your bow. How did you find the experience of writing fiction?
It’s an educational book, and so I’ll tell you a little bit about the characters. Do you remember Top Trumps? So each character represents a different color of the original Pride flag. They all have a name, and they all have attributes and a different colour under the rainbow umbrella, and they will ask questions. They’re excited about answers, and it’s all about educating. Two of the characters are named after my children which, for me, is gorgeous, and they think it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s also been translated into Welsh, and it’s just won Welsh Educational Book of the Month, and it’s already flying in the pre orders, which means people do care. They want to educate and they want to celebrate, which I’m really chuffed about.
What ages are your own children?
I have twins. They are nine years old now, twin boys, one’s called Max and the other one’s Cubby. And they obviously have been aware of Pride and that boys can love boys and girls can love girls, and all in between. I’m happy to answer any questions, and their friends are educated as well. We do lots of work with all of the local schools. I go in and do diversity talks.
They’ve designed their own character traits to match up with the colors of the Pride flag. They wanted all of their friends represented, so some of them are based on their friends as well, butall of the characters also follow people within the LGBTQ+ community. I represent lots of different characters and genders and sexualities throughout the book.
You had a history making turn on Dancing On Ice in the show’s first ever same sex pairing. Were you sad to hear the show was axed earlier this year?
I was, because for me it was one of those pinch me moments. We blazed the trail, Matt and I. It was something that I had campaigned for for many years on contestant-based shows, and to be the one to actually do it and open the door for others was incredible. We were the first, and then everybody kind of followed suit, we made this this wave and you see all the ripples now across all TV shows. So yeah, I was gutted but it’s not the last of Dancing On Ice. It’ll be back in some shape or form.
You also took part in Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 during what was probably the most controversial series the show has ever seen. LGBTQ+ representation has come along way since those days – the most recent series was dominated by queer storylines surrouding characters like JoJo Siwa and Danny Beard – did you watch any of it?
I didn’t watch it when it was on, but I’ve seen snippets, and I know that Danny Beard did exceptionally well, and rightly so. I love Danny, and I texted him afterwards saying, “Bloody brilliant. Thank you for representing and educating.” Because that’s Danny, he does it in such a beautiful, brilliant, funny way, and he’ll put you in your place. He did that in the house as well. But times have changed. Back then, I was the only LGBT person in the house. It was a time when there was no social media, so you weren’t trolled, you weren’t ripped apart or celebrated. You didn’t know what was happening until you came out of the house. I made the final and I didn’t know which way it was going to go. We knew something was happening in the house. I was in there with Jade [Goody] and Shilpa [Shetty] and Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd, but all of that stuff happened behind my back, so I was unaware. I was aware there was bullying, and I called that out in the diary room. But the rest of it, I didn’t know. It was a very different beast. You just went in for a little laugh, and you either came out on top or you ruined your career.
You all came out to a media circus like the show had never seen before or since due to the so-called race row involving those women. How do you sort of reflect on on all that now?
It was madness. We knew something was happening because we would be in the garden, and they would call us all in, and all of the shutters would go down on the garden. And we later found out it was because helicopters were flying over and dropping messages and notes telling us what was going on outside of the house. But on reflection, my time in the house was actually bloody brilliant. I had such a great time. I made friends. I’m still great friends with Shilpa. We message every so often, she’s blinking gorgeous. So for me, that is the best thing that came out of that. But I know some of the other people that I went in there with have not recovered from what they did in there. They try to launch themselves as something or rebrand, and then all of this hate reappears on TikTok, and it’s scary. But when you look back, you’d think they would have been cleverer than that. But here we are.
I know Steps are on a little bit of a break at the moment, while the musical does its thing-
No, it’s not a break – we are so involved! We are literally casting the show at the moment. We produce the show, everything down to costumes to choreography, actors, to pay, to theaters, everything we are across. So we’re in contact daily with each other now. It’s lovely to have something that I dreamt of nearly 20 years ago come to life. I have been the driving force of this musical for a long time. I brought the idea with a producer to the band maybe seven years ago. It’s since taken many forms – different directors, different production companies, different storylines, different writers. But yeah, to see it finally on stage is, oh my gosh, immense. How many bands get to do that? It’s bloody brilliant.
Are we going to get to see it come to the West End?
Watch this space. There’s rumblings, there’s talk. We shall see…
Pride and the Rainbow Warriors is available to purchase now.