When he started on TV, Oliver says, his audience was overwhelmingly female. Men viewed him with suspicion at first. “Boys were still quite sexist and were still looking at the girls, asking, 'What’s for dinner?’” Was the female attention that came with his rapid rise to fame difficult to handle in the relationship? Did he have to reassure his wife? “I’m not a particularly jealous person… I think probably Jools is healthily, averagely [jealous]. I just remember early in our relationship we both sort of said, 'Look, if we don’t want to be with each other let’s just not be with each other and be really honest’.