Since Jasmine ‘Jazz’ Saunders joined the cast of Made in Chelsea, she has been in more than her fair share of love triangles and complicated situationships – usually with a male friend who has unrequited feelings for her.
One such friend was Jack Taylor. He confessed his love for her at the end of season 28, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be and Jazz did not feel the same way. In episode one of season 29, which, surprise surprise, kicks off on a luxury all-cast holiday to the Maldives, we learn that Jack was talking to someone else while all of this was going on – that person, Livvy Barker, is now his girlfriend.
Naturally, this led to a bit of a showdown in the first episode, with Jazz querying how he could have been in love with her and seeing his soon-to-be girlfriend at the same time. ‘It wasn’t very nice because it was a very quick turnaround,’ Jazz tells us, ‘and I felt a bit blindsided, hence why I came in with so much sass and anger.’
It’s all water under the bridge now, though. Not only are Jazz and Jack friends again, but Jazz has a ‘really nice bond’ with Livvy too. ‘I support Jack with everything that he does and he supports me. It’s very wholesome and I’m really good friends with his girlfriend now. It’s funny how times change.’
Of course, that storyline was swiftly eclipsed by Jazz’s news in episode two, where she told her friends and fellow cast members that she wants to date girls. After being pictured kissing former TOWIE star Demi Simms on the red carpet at the One Of Them Days screening at the start of March, the pair have gone public with their burgeoning romance – something we are likely to see play out this season.
Until this happened, most of Jazz’s friends and family were not aware of her sexuality. ‘I wasn’t really going to share on social media. I was kind of waiting for this episode to come out, but then people put the pieces together,’ she explains. Being outed by social media sleuths and the tabloid press can’t have been an easy experience – and certainly not an ideal one. ‘Yes,’ Jazz agrees, ‘but then I think it forced me to have conversations. When the press released those pictures of Demi and I at the premiere, I hadn’t told my family we were seeing each other. None of my friends knew, Julia knew because I tell her everything, but it forced me to be like, “well, it’s everywhere now so this is it.”’
Telling her friends in the Maldives was a similarly unplanned experience. ‘We were mid-filming and we had an evening off and I was with Jules and Ruby and I’d had a few glasses, and I was so unhappy and told them [dating] wasn’t working for me. I was kind of hinting at it, but I didn’t say. Then Ruby was like, “what about girls?” And I froze and just burst out crying.’
‘The next day, I told Lauren for the first time on camera,’ which is what we see play out in episode two. ‘It’s been a long time that I’ve been doing things in secret and battling with it, battling with it on my own. It was literally only my sister who knew and I thought it would stay that way, honestly.’
Jazz credits Ruby and Jules for creating such a safe environment where she felt she could open up. ‘It Ruby never asked me, who knows?’
Unsurprisingly, coming out has lifted a huge weight off her shoulders. Jazz now describes herself as a ‘different person’ and says all her friends and family feel the same. ‘The change is crazy,’ she smiles. ‘I didn’t realise until I watched episode one and I was like, "okay I have a very different demeanour and how I look and everything." Since coming out, I’ve really been the best version of myself.’
Surreal in every sense, Jazz not only came out to her friends on national TV, but she has been exploring this part of her identity in real time throughout season 29. ‘I’ve had the best season. I’ve been navigating this journey and filming it and also experiencing it for the first time. It’s a whole new era of dating.’
‘There are certain scenes that I’ve filmed this series that I will cherish forever,’ she adds. ‘I’ll watch them back and keep them as memories because they’ve been really nice.’
As for her relationship with Demi: ‘It’s new!’ Jazz replies coyly, but she cannot hide the grin on her face. ‘She’s met the cast; she’s met a lot of her friends. She’s been in this world for a long time so if she were to join [the show], then I’m sure it would be fine.’
Their joint appearance at the One Of Them Days screening, then, is likely to be the first of many. ‘We’re both very busy. I’m training for a marathon and I’ve got a strict schedule and she’s training for misfits boxing, so when we get invited to events we want to go and see each other because we need to make time for each other during the week. So every opportunity we just go.’ Laughing, Jazz adds, ‘We didn’t think it would go as viral as it did, but we weren’t careful either.’
Is a double date with Made in Chelsea lovebirds Tristan and Jules on the cards? It sounds like it. ‘They’re going so strong. You can just tell how in love they are with each other and they’re just so wholesome,’ Jazz tells us. ‘They’re very well suited and I think people didn’t really see that but it’s so different now.’
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).