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Jamie Laing Family: History, Mystery And Interesting Bits

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Jamie Laing family

Jamie Laing Family: History, Mystery And Interesting Bits

It’s nice being the heir of a family business, even more, if it’s a century-old widely popular and well-liked digestive biscuit business. 

It would be easy to prepare to become the heir of that company and live life to the fullest. But, some would still go out of their way to do what they love, develop their own business, and create their own success mark. 

Jamie Laing has proven himself over and over again, despite coming from a wealthy and popular family. He is the heir of his great-great grandfather’s digestive biscuit company, TV star with his own fans and followers who adore him, and a successful entrepreneur. 

Let’s dig into the digestive biscuit, Jamie Laing’s family and his ventures! 

A Background Check On Jamie Laing…

Image Source/Business Insider

The young lad was born in Oxford to Penny and Nicholas. More interestingly, his great-great-grandfather was Sir Alexander Grant who created the McVitie’s digestive biscuits in 1892. 

Despite being the heir of McVitie’s fortune, Jamie went about his childhood and education without much hooha. 

After attending Radley College, he pursued Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds. 

This definitely fueled his ventures into the English entertainment industry where he seems to be doing rather well. 

Jamie Laing’s Various Ventures And Talents…

Source/YouTube

Jamie Laing gained popularity through his appearance in the reality show Made In Chelsea since 2011. He has also made guest appearances on various shows such as The Jonathan Ross Show, Loose Women, Celebrity Juice, This Morning, Good Morning Britain, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice, Virtually Famous, Reality Bites, Up Late with Ryan, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and Sunday Brunch, to name a few. 

He also appeared in Celebrity Hunted with another Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews. 

Apart from appearances and being a reality star, Jamie Laing has also acted in shows such as Hollyoaks, Murder in Successville, and Drunk History, adding on to his long list of talents. 

Jamie Laing’s more recent venture includes the podcast he runs with his friend Francis Boulle titled Private Parts. 

Evidently, his podcast has been met with great enthusiasm and praises!

Jamie And Dance? 

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Unfortunately, his venture into the world of dancing was put to a halt due to a foot injury. Named as one of the celebrities of Season 17 of Strictly Come Dancing, James had to opt out just two days before the airing. 

But, Jamie could have nailed it as he studied contemporary dance during university. But, he recalls it to be a skewed experience. So, maybe not! 

“When it came to finally enrolling in my course, people had already picked what they wanted to do and the only thing that was left was contemporary dance.

“So for the whole first year, I had to do a contemporary dance.

“All of my friends were sitting in the front row and they were all laughing at me and I thought ‘this sucks’, so my experience of dance has been skewed a bit by that.

“It was the worst thing in the world, I’d wake up every day and think why have I done this”.

However, Kelvin Fletcher who replaced James won the show and we are not sure if it added salt to James’ wound or made him feel great for Kevin! 

Before That, What’s The Deal With McVitie’s And The Fortune That Comes With It?

Image Source/The Mirror

Starting as an apprentice for a baker, Sir Alexander Grant became an assistant at McVitie and Price where he created the original recipe for digestive biscuit. 

With a secret recipe for the biscuit that contained high content of baking soda to aid digestion (hence, the name!), it became a top favourite among the people. 

Fun Fact: McVitie’s fans were quite recently furious after they altered the digestive’s taste by cutting down the amount of saturated fat by 80%. 

Alexander went on to be the chairman and managing director of McVitie’s. 

After he passed on, the company was inherited by Alexander’s grandson-in-law who was also Jamie’s great-uncle. 

However, in 2000, the company was sold to private equity investors. 

However, Jamie Doesn’t Have A Clue About The Money! 

Image Source/Grazia Daily

Jamie has revealed that he doesn’t know anything about the money from the company. 

Apparently, he is not aware of where the money from the selling of the company went. 

“We sold the company a long time ago, but I don’t know where that money went.

“I haven’t seen any of it. It’s pretty upsetting.

“I’m hoping one day I find it… I don’t even get free biscuits.”

But, even without the money from McVitie’s digestives, Jamie’s net worth is estimated to be around £2 million! 

All thanks to his very own sweets business! 

Jamie Laing And His Candy Kittens Dreams

Image Source/Evening Standard

Looks like it runs in the blood! 

Whether or not Jamie get his share of McVitie’s, he has set his own path in the world of confectionery. 

He runs his own sweet company Candy Kittens which was launched in 2012. 

Starting out with a pop-up shop on Kings Road with gluten-free and health-conscious candies with natural colours and flavours, the business has grown to be on the shelves of Harvey Nichols, Fenwick, Topshop Selfridges, Waitrose and more. 

Believe it or not, he got his inspiration from Abercrombie & Fitch!

“I have wanted to open my own candy shop since I was about eight years old,’ he says. 

“Candy Kittens was inspired by the clothes shop Abercrombie & Fitch. All their staff are beautiful people, so I thought, “Why not do the same with a sweet shop?”

A Bigger And Better Candy Kittens

Image Source/Appear Here

With Ed Williams, the managing director of Candy Kittens, the business grew and is now aiming to expand. 

Apparently, Ed Williams is a pillar of strength to the company!

“Ed Williams is just one of the most genius people I’ve ever met in my entire life. I came across him by chance through a friend and he works so hard. We are very different. I always say, we are like a triangle, we’re so different at the start but then we both go the same way, and I think that’s the beauty of it. 

“I’m probably the bane of his life in so many different ways but he is the engine. I can go and do my filming and do other things and he is here making sure everything’s going OK.”

Now, how’s that for a great side kick? 

So, What’s Special With Candy Kittens?

According to Jamie, 

“There’s this big sort of stigma towards sugar. We realise we’re sugar, we’re a treat. But we’re gluten-free, we’re natural flavours, natural fruit juices. 

“We’re going down vegetarian options, we do everything we possibly can to make them as unartificial as possible but at the same time, we are a treat. We’re not one of those cereal bars that say we’re super healthy but then they’re full of sugar.”

On To Those Interesting Bits…

  1. Jamie has a tattoo of a black cartoon cat with the words ‘Candy Kittens’ on his hip bone! Talk about being dedicated and passionate to his company!
  2. His life ambition is to become the ‘Willy Wonka and Hugh Hefner of Chelsea’.
  3. He wants hand-picked teams of gorgeous and scantily dressed girls to be the staff in his company. 
  4. He is often stopped in the street to sign biscuit wrappers. 
  5. Jamie has dated a long list of women who appeared in Made in Chelsea, including Louise Thompson, Lucy Watson, Tara Keeney, Phoebe Lettice-Thompson, Riley Uggla, Naz Gharai, Jess Woodley, Frankie Gaff and Clemmie Cuthbertson.

Jamie Laing’s Sound Advice To Those Starting Their Own Business…

Listen up, you young business people. If it worked for Laing, it might work for you too. 

According to Laing: 

“Hard work. 100%. I think you can have a great idea but if you have a bad team it’s just not going to work out. Team is so important. 

“The reason Ed and I started the brand isn’t because we wanted to make millions of pounds and be super-rich; the reason we wanted to do it is because we love creating brands. 

“Someone always told me, business is paid in two currencies: cash and experience. Take the experience first, because the cash will come later.

“When you first go and do something, you do it because you’re going to make mistakes but experience everything, understand what you’re doing before you go, “Where’s the money?” 

“Because if you’re just chasing money you’re never going to do it. We’re still making mistakes. We had no idea what we were doing [when we first started]. 

“Packets of sweets? No idea. We just had to learn, or we were falling down the hill.”

More Tips Coming Up… 

Laing also shared tips on how to become a successful entrepreneur. 

“Have an idea and create the perfect team around it. Why Wales’ rugby team always did well is that they were such a good team. 

“If you’re a team you don’t have to be the best at whatever, but everyone having a vision and everyone having their individual places within that team [is important so] that you can just boss it.”

Considering Laing didn’t have any mentors to lean on to during his entrepreneurial journey, his tips could actually help you learn from his mistakes and experience. 

So, what are you waiting for? Channel your inner Jamie Laing and rock it! 

Jamie And His Social Media Presence

As an entertainer and entrepreneur, it is only natural that Jamie has his social media profiles in mint condition! 

His YouTube channel, Jamie Laing’s Happy Hour is a platform for him to create and entertain without any limitations. 

Source/YouTube

He said, 

“I started to do YouTube because I think loads of people watch YouTube and loads of people are drifting away from TV slightly. It’s like Jamie’s Happy Hour because it’s just a place to entertain people. 

“I’ve always wanted to entertain. On television you have commissioners, you have to jump through so many hoops, it’s very boring and tiring, so I thought, what I’ll do is I’ll just create a platform for myself where I can showcase everything that I want to do without people telling me no.”

And, his Twitter literally explodes with his daily Tweets! Look for yourself!

His Instagram is so much fun!

No wonder he took a break from social media earlier this year. But, he was back with a bang! 

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Introducing Lewis, a dedicated news writer at Daily Feed for nearly a decade! With his sharp attention to detail and knack for investigative reporting, Lewis delves deep into current events, providing readers with comprehensive coverage and insightful analysis. As a trusted authority in the realm of news journalism, he delivers timely updates and in-depth stories on a wide range of topics.

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