All you need to know about GK Barry’s footballer girlfriend Ella Rutherford
Ella Rutherford and GK Barry have been dating since May 2024. (Instagram)
GK Barry, podcast host, TikTok influencer and the youngest panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, is a bona fide UK queer icon these days, and she’s also one half of a couple that includes talented footballer Ella Rutherford.
This weekend, she joins other famous faces in new ITV show Celebrity Sabotage. She, Joel Dommett, Judi Love and Sam Thompson will be set loose on the public to play a series of pranks.
But it’s not the first big ITV show she’s done, as she went in the Australian jungle for I’m A Celebrity in 2024, which meant she had to leave her girlfriend Ella behind.
Ella Rutherford is a 25-year-old footballer who plays for Portsmouth. She previously turned out for Millwall, Bristol City, Charlton Athletic and more recently Ipswich Town.
She has more than 126,000 followers on Instagram – a drop in the ocean compared with Barry’s 1.3million. They regularly post cute photos and videos together, like at Halloween.
How did GK Barry meet Ella?
It was GK Barry, 26, who made the first move after finding Ella Rutherford on social media. They followed each other and started talking, and the rest is history. “I saw her Instagram and I thought ‘hello’,” Barry said.
This came just weeks after Barry appeared on Lioness Ella Toone’s YouTube channel and asked the footballer to set her up, revealing her interest in female football stars.
While Barry and Rutherford didn’t need setting up, a helping hand might have been useful in those early days because the former went on to reveal that she had lied when they first started dating.
On an episode of Barry’s podcast, Saving Grace, she said: “You know when you first start talking, I was like: ‘Mess makes me angry and I’m quite a shy person, I’m not really an angry person’.
“Any lie I could have told her, I completely told her the first week of talking. I was even laughing typing it. And she believed it.”
How long has GK Barry been with Ella?
The couple have been seeing each other for over a year, with the pair growing serious over the summer in 2024 while on holiday in Benidorm.
GK Barry has met Ella Rutherford’s family, and publicly said she is “in love” although at the time refused to tell anyone the person’s name, nicknaming her “Eyelashes” instead.
“Whenever I refer to eyelashes, I am talking about the love of my life,” Grace said on her podcast at the time. “I’m in love and it has been three weeks, but that’s fine. That’s absolutely fine. She came to me like a dream and I was obsessed.”
Is this GK Barry’s first relationship with a woman?
Yes, Barry has never dated a woman before but feels as if she’s been “missing out” now that she’s with Rutherford.
“I feel I went very wrong with men,” she admitted. “I don’t like men any more, I will never go back to a man. I’ve got spring in my step, I feel like I’m glowing. It’s the lesbian glow.”
When did GK Barry confirm the relationship?
It wasn’t Barry who confirmed the couple’s relationship publicly, it was her girlfriend.
Following months of speculation, Ella wished Barry a happy birthday in August 2024, posting a collage on her Instagram story featuring photos of the couple and writing: “Happy Birthday, babe. I love you more and more every day.”
One photo showed Rutherford’s arm around Barry’s while they were in Ibiza.
What did Ella Rutherford say about GK Barry being on I’m A Celeb?
Ella Rutherford was super supportive of Barry entering the jungle, despite it being the longest they’ve been apart at that time.
Rutherford shared an Instagram post of Barry sitting on her lap and captioned it: “My little jungle babe.”
GK Barry told Heart: “My girlfriend is very excited for me and thinks I will do really well. I got her a cardboard cut out of me so it’s not weird when I am away.”
According to The Mirror, as a going-away gift, the TikTok star sent Ella Rutherford a bouquet of red roses with a note that read: “I miss you my little pea head angel, I love you.”
What have they been up to lately?
The loved-up couple welcomed a new family member: a dog called Sherry-Baby.
GK Barry posted a carousel of pictures of the new pooch on Instagram, writing: “Introducing our newest daughter Sherry-Baby (double barrel ofc) Shes a Korean Maltese and has completed our family. Noodle is obsessed with his new sister/best friend hope you love her as much as we do. Noodle & Sherry-Baby 4 Life.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
