‘I’m a council-estate kid. I’m a businesswoman. There’s a lot of layers to me’ … Trewley Precious Temple. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian View image in fullscreen ‘I’m a council-estate kid. I’m a businesswoman. There’s a lot of layers to me’ … Trewley Precious Temple. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Reality TV ‘Basically, you give yourself to the man’: Trewley Precious Temple on her life as a Gypsy wife – and beyond The TikTok influencer is now a TV star. But this independent, opinionated woman still lives with her mother, on the Clacton council estate where she grew up. Will she ever leave? And how does she feel about Mum’s curfew?
Emine Saner Thu 6 Aug 2026 06.00 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google S ince eyes are turned to Clacton-on-Sea and a certain candidate facing questions about a £5m “gift” and a byelection battle with a man dressed as a bin , let’s take a look across the town at a young woman in a pink house and be reminded of some values – generosity, decency – that appear absent from much of public life.
Trewley Precious Temple, who became well known on TikTok, where she has 1m followers, is the star of the Channel 4 show Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives and is fast becoming a phenomenon. The show features her mum, Tina, her sisters Honey, Pearl and Ruby-Anne and her brother Jamie; they’re like the Kardashians, says Temple in every episode’s intro, if the humourless US reality TV family were “fat and broke and on benefits”. What comes across most strongly is the family’s love and big-heartedness, not just for each other, but for their wider community, too.
In Temple’s area of Clacton-on-Sea, 56% of children live in low-income families , compared with 38% in England. Her council estate is particularly deprived: it has been the focus of visible police patrols after being identified as an antisocial-behaviour hotspot and has a high level of unemployment.
We don’t spend long talking about Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader fighting for re-election as an MP; Temple says she doesn’t have an opinion of him. But what does she wish politicians understood about the people she grew up with, her neighbours? “Don’t underestimate the struggle. Don’t underestimate these people,” she says. “Talk to them, know what they want. Think of their ideas, too. I’ve got lots of ideas how we could build this up. I’d love to talk to someone who wants the power to fix this place. All I’m saying is see it as teamwork.”
She says she wants everyone to have chances and help, if they need it: events that would bring the community together; vouchers for food and school uniforms. “Just give people opportunities that haven’t had them before.” She is stunned by the opportunities she has had. “To get a brand deal [she has promoted makeup, among other products] – amazing. Even to get this opportunity to be interviewed – amazing. Because I don’t come from a place where people get interviewed.” She laughs. “Unless you get nicked.”
View image in fullscreen (From left) Ruby-Anne, Honey, Trewley, Tina and Pearl. Photograph: Optomen/Channel 4 We are sitting in Tina’s pristine living room; before I took my place, Temple tried to give me a bag of crisps and a chocolate bar, for the journey home. She lives here with Tina and Ruby-Anne; the others live nearby. Her late father, Sidney, “gave us permission” to paint the house pink when he was nearing the end of his life. She adds, sadly: “I realised he did that because he knew it was gonna be a girls’ house.…