JoJo Siwa has spoken about the intense backlash surrounding the early days of her romance with boyfriend Chris Hughes, admitting it did 'get to them a little bit.' The pair formed a close friendship when they met on Celebrity Big Brother last year, but their bond on the show raised eyebrows given that the Dance Moms star was in a relationship with Kath Ebbs at the time.
JoJo, 23, split from her partner Kath just hours after CBB wrapped, and in the weeks that followed, fans speculated whether her relationship with Chris had blossomed into something more. Now, the couple is celebrating their one-year anniversary, and JoJo has opened up about those early days.
Despite the wild theories and backlash, JoJo told Daily Mail that she and Chris, 33, 'never had a conversation' about any of the claims, and said any opinions about their relationship 'don't matter' to them. Speaking about her relationship, JoJo said: 'The thing about it is, we never spoke about it. Him and I never had a conversation of, "oh, someone said this, or oh, people are saying that." We, especially in the beginning, we never, ever spoke about it to each other. I think it definitely got to both of us a little bit because we weren't sure how the other person was feeling. But we never, ever were bothered by an opinion of something.'
She added: 'Because I also - look, we both have a decade-long career in this industry where we've had plenty of things said about each other individually and plenty of things that are true and plenty of things that aren't true. And so I think it just kind of works, and we don't need to talk about it, and our public lives are our public lives, and our private lives are our private lives. We don't talk about when and where they mix, they just naturally do. I don't know, the opinions, for me, the opinions never matter because the only opinion that matters is his and my mom's. Aside from that, honestly, even my dad, like, all good, bro. If you have an opinion that's not good, all good.'
JoJo added that she plans to show her grandchildren the moment she and Chris first met on Celebrity Big Brother, saying: 'It's really fun to look back at. I mean, like, I think about this all the time. Like, a lot of people, right, have their first date, they have a photo of them when they first met, right? They have a story from when they first met. My parents, they met at the fight where Mike Tyson bit someone's ear off, right? Like that's the night they met, they can remember that. They have a day, they have a story, right? Where they're like, "oh, if only we had a picture of us from that day, right?" Not only do Chris and I have video footage of the day we met, right, the very first time ever meeting, but then we also have video footage. Not even just photos, video footage documenting our first 20 days of life together. Only with each other, getting to know each other, having fun, laughing, dancing, pranking, eating, everything, crying. We have everything together from those first 20 days, and as valuable as that is now one year into our relationship, I cannot wait to be 75 years old one day, and show grandkids that. I would pay any amount of money to see my grandma and grandpa, a photo of them on their first date, a photo, much less a TV show of the first 20 days. You don't get that, and obviously we didn't date then, but we didn't meet then. And so it's fascinating to think about.'
Following her appearance on CBB, JoJo said she has discovered a whole new audience of British fans, and she cemented the success with a European tour last year. Asked whether there are any plans for a return to the stage, she hinted: 'I'll be very, very, very honest, very honest. This morning I had a conversation with my mom about getting something out for a certain time when a certain something's happening over there already to make it feel like I'm like, yes. [So] no, but today was the first conversation of "we should."'
JoJo added that Chris has helped convert her to some of the UK's most iconic cuisine, saying: 'I feel like obviously my other half's over there, but then I feel like his family has really taken me in and they've been so lovely and so wonderful. I feel like staying with his friends, I feel like whenever I'm over there now, it does feel like a bit of home. One of the ways that I know that is because of the food, I used to be like, "oh, I'm going to the UK, like I'm not going to eat for a few days. Like, I find it hard." Now I'm like, "oh my God, I'm going to the UK. I can't wait to have a good sausage. I can't wait to have some Weetabix! I am so excited. Like I get, oh my God some Marylands." I get excited to go home almost a little bit. It's good.'
JoJo is marking the 10th Anniversary of her viral hit Boomerang with a new five-track EP, which includes the original vocal of the song which she recorded when she was just 13 years old. She said: 'It started a few years ago, three years ago with the ballad. We got the idea to do a Boomerang ballad, something more mature, something as an adult. But then we were like, "we're so close to the 10 year anniversary. Why don't we just wait?" And then a couple months ago, we were like, "oh my God, it's almost the 10 year anniversary. We got to go now." Then we revisited the ballad, we revisited doing the remix, doing the 2026 version. I found the wet acapella vocal from when I was a kid. So it's the raw vocal of me as a 13 year old. It's the cutest audio ever, so we included that. So it's come to me very quickly, but it's turned out perfect.'
She continued: 'Boomerang is actually kind of a hard song to work with. It's a very dramatic diva in itself, the tempo, the key, the lyrics, it's sort of rappy. And so when we're going to create, the ballad was difficult. The ballad, you know, figuring out how do you take a fast talky, rappy song and make it a beautiful, pretty ballad, it was very complicated. My producer, Matthew Tishler, did absolutely wonderful work. I still don't know how I pulled it out. I literally gave him the idea and I said, good luck. And he made it perfect.'
Despite rising to fame at a young age, JoJo said she is unlike many child stars whose personal or professional lives have taken a downward turn. She said: 'I have a really good life and I think I have really good friends, I have a really good family. I have a really good dog. I've kind of always had a good dog in my life, whether that be Bobo or Star or now Clyde. I don't know, I'm just, I'm very lucky. I count my blessings, I know my blessings. I appreciate my blessings. And I just, I find the happy, and I think finding the happy can take you real far in life. Keep your circle small, don't let too many people in. And when somebody's bad, get them out.'
JoJo Siwa's Boomerang 10th Anniversary EP is out now.
