When Joe Swash first arrived at Albert Square in 2003, the young EastEnders actor was dubbed the ‘Swashbuckler’ – a party-loving soap star whose off-screen antics were almost as famous as his character.
More than two decades on, however, it seems the career of the twice-bankrupt former soap star has taken a rather unexpected turn.
These days, Joe, 44, can be found enthusiastically promoting all sorts of miscellaneous items on TikTok Shop – flogging everything from hair-growth shampoo and conditioner priced at £25 to electronic eye-massage masks for £29.99 to his 107,000 followers.
Each video carries the small but telling label: ‘Commission paid’. They are adverts.
It is a curious sight – not least because while Joe busies himself hawking cut-price gadgets online, his wife Stacey Solomon has built one of the most lucrative personal brands in Britain. Her £10 million empire spans television shows, brand partnerships and product ranges.
Meanwhile, countless TikTok Shop videos feature Joe gamely attempting to sell gadgets while Stacey, 36, heckles him loudly in the background.
And if the videos are intended to present the pair as an endearingly chaotic double act, some observers believe the sight of Joe pushing products online has a rather more desperate feel.
‘This really is a new low for Joe,’ a source tells me. ‘You have Stacey running a multi-million-pound empire while he’s doing commission-paid ads for gadgets on TikTok.’
Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon at the Baftas last year. The couple have a BBC series, Stacey & Joe, which gives viewers an insight into their domestic life at Pickle Cottage
Another added: ‘It does rather make you wonder whether Stacey’s stopped giving him his pocket money.’
If Joe hoped the venture might reveal him to be a savvy online entrepreneur, the reality appears less polished, as Stacey is heard in the videos openly mocking both the products and his efforts to promote them.
In one, Stacey tells her husband, ‘You look like a k**b’, before he has even begun.
Undeterred, Joe presses on. ‘Right, so this is a little segment I’m gonna call “Try Before You Buy”,’ he explains. ‘I’m gonna try it before you lot buy it. If it works, I’ll let you know about it. If it’s a load of crapola…’
From off-camera, Stacey interjects immediately: ‘It looks like a load of crapola.’
The item in question is a £29.99 mask designed to massage the face while gently blowing air across the eyes. But Stacey is unimpressed.
‘What do you mean it blows on your eyes? What is the point in that? You’re gonna have the driest eyes in Essex,’ she says.
Elsewhere, he attempts to persuade viewers of the merits of Watermans shampoo and conditioner, which retails for £25 and promises to help tackle hair loss.
‘If you’re losing your hair and you’re trying to get it back a little bit…’ Joe begins. But once again, his sales pitch is quickly derailed by his wife.
‘Give up the ghost, mate. Shave it off,’ Stacey says. ‘I can tell you right now it ain’t gonna work.’
When Joe leans in to whisper the £25 price of the product, Stacey is audibly shocked by how much he has spent.
‘You might as well get a hair transplant,’ she shouts. ‘By the time you’ve bought four of them, you could’ve gone to Turkey.’
Amusing as the videos may be, they also highlight a striking rift between the couple’s career trajectories.
Because while Joe has turned to commission-paid gadget promotions on TikTok, his wife’s commercial pursuits have gone from strength to strength.
Recent filings show Stacey’s company, Key Map Entertainments Ltd, which manages her television work and commercial deals, was valued at £10.1 million for 2025, a significant jump from £7.4 million the previous year. The accounts also reveal that Stacey has £7.5 million tied up in investments and a further £1.6 million in cash.
Much of that fortune has been built through a steady stream of highly profitable collaborations, including homeware and fashion ranges with Primark and George at Asda, jewellery partnerships with Abbott Lyon, a haircare venture with REHAB and her parenting podcast Here We Go Again.
By contrast, Joe’s financial history has been far less stable.
The actor first found fame playing Mickey Miller in EastEnders in 2003, becoming a popular fixture. But by 2008, producers had run out of storylines for the character and axed him from the show.
That same year, Joe briefly revived his fortunes by winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, emerging from the jungle as a fan favourite.
But the victory did little to stabilise his finances.
Within months he had been declared bankrupt after failing to keep up with tax payments, and in 2013 he was declared bankrupt for a second time – again due to unpaid bills to HMRC.
In 2017, Joe admitted he had been reckless with money after finding fame. ‘I got into EastEnders and was irresponsible with money,’ he said. ‘I was chucking it away on stuff I didn’t need. I went out every night and had a house with a mortgage. When you are young you just don’t think it is ever going to end. I thought I was going to be on EastEnders for years and years.’
The former soap star has also spoken candidly about his struggles with spending and the impulsive purchases he has made on TikTok Shop.
Joe Swash tests out an eye massager in an ad video on TikTok
Stacey and Joe share a kiss on their television programme. The pair have been together since 2016, and married in 2022
The couple have a blended family of six children – three they had together and three from previous relationships
Speaking on comic Tom Price’s podcast My Mate Bought A Toaster last year, Joe confessed that he regularly buys bizarre gadgets online, blaming his ADHD for what he described as an ‘addiction’ to the platform.
One purchase, he revealed sheepishly, was a slingshot chicken finger toy – of which he bought 20.
‘I’m going to be in real big trouble [with] Stacey because I’ve just wasted more money on some other pointless product,’ he said. ‘She’s not comfortable with my TikTok addiction.’
It seems his financial fortunes only truly changed after he met Stacey. Today the couple live together at Pickle Cottage, a five-bedroom, £1.2 million property in Essex, where they raise their blended family of six children – three they had together and three from previous relationships.
But, tellingly, the house was bought entirely in Stacey’s name. While the couple publicly present themselves as an equal partnership, insiders say she has long been the financial driving force behind the household.
‘Stacey is very much the breadwinner,’ one industry insider tells me. ‘She built the empire.’
The couple’s BBC series Stacey & Joe has given viewers an insight into their domestic life at Pickle Cottage, showcasing Stacey’s carefully curated world of craft projects and home renovations.
But moments from the programme have occasionally hinted at tensions bubbling beneath the surface of the pair’s playful double act.
In one episode, Joe admits he sometimes feels like a ‘problem’ in Stacey’s otherwise ‘perfect’ life – a remark that viewers felt spoke volumes about the imbalance between the pair.
For those watching the Solomon-Swash household closely, the admission will hardly come as a surprise.
After all, while Stacey may be busy building her personal brand, it seems those around her are increasingly finding their own ways to make a quick profit from it.
As I revealed last week, Stacey’s older sister Jemma Solomon, 37, has started selling products from the star’s own commercial ranges on the resale app Vinted at a reduced price.
Among the items listed on Jemma’s page are several pieces from Stacey’s At Home With Stacey Solomon collection for George at Asda, including wine glasses that normally retail at £8 for just £2, and a three-pack of candlesticks listed for the same price.
Although Jemma says the proceeds from her Vinted sales will be given to charity, the listings are part of a paid promotion with the platform, meaning she will profit financially from the partnership.
For a woman whose brand is built on selling aspirational domestic perfection, it all paints a rather curious picture of Stacey.
If Joe’s latest TikTok venture is anything to go by, he, too, appears keen to find a new way to cash in on her empire – even if it means being heckled by his multi-millionaire wife while doing so.
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