We caught up with our favourite Cabins couple to find out about their reality TV romance
BY SOPHIE GRIFFITHS
Anyone else having withdrawal symptoms from The Cabins? We’re missing our daily dose of dating show antics, particularly the romance between Char and Sarah who have remained together since the show! An official cabin couple that we can’t get enough of.
The brand-new format saw single individuals move into a cabin together for 24 hours, before being given the choice to pair up or check out. Charlotte Taundry and Sarah Hutchinson cosied up for a whole five days, spooning the nights away with so many romantic moments that filled our hearts with joy.
We watched them fall in love in Otter’s Pocket, but what has life been like since the show? Let’s find out!
DIVA: How did you first get involved with The Cabins?
Char: I saw it on Instagram as an advert and I had been on a series of bad dates. After we were released into the wild again after lockdown one, I was serial dating and trying to catch up, but I had the worst dates. I had just come off one and the next day I saw the advert and I thought what have I got to lose?
Sarah: I’m with a talent agency for my modelling and it came through there. I’ve been single for a really long time with no luck, so I thought if a show that’s going to search the entirety of the UK can’t find someone for me then I’m leaving the dating life.
Have you always wanted to do reality TV or go on a dating show?
Char: For me, it was definitely out of the blue. Life has changed because of Coronavirus and it’s something I never would have done before.
Sarah: I’d thought about being on TV before but I didn’t think I’d do a dating show or anything reality based.
What were you hoping to get out of it?
Char: We were on the same page and didn’t expect to find each other. I was totally convinced that nobody like Sarah existed. I didn’t think I could meet somebody who was on the same level as me who I could get on with and like this much. I didn’t have high expectations. I just thought I’d see what happens. We really didn’t expect to fall in love.
You’ve only recently opened up about your sexuality, Char. Have you felt welcomed into the LGBTQI community?
Char: The reaction has been more positive than I ever expected. I thought people would be like “Oh, she’s not actually gay because it’s been two years.” Everyone’s been so nice about it though and a lot of people have said they have exactly the same experience and it’s so much more common than people think it is to come out later on in life.
Have you always been out, Sarah?
Sarah: I’ve never been out and proud. I still have friends that don’t really know because it’s not something I shout about. It’s just something I personally was never proud of because I didn’t like myself and the fact that I liked women. That’s why I’m screaming it out so loudly now because we’ve had so much positive feedback and I get to feel good about it.
What were your initial thoughts when you saw each other?
Sarah: She just bounced over to me and said “Hi” and I thought “Okay, she’s fun”. I was really nervous at first but the nerves disappeared after like 10 minutes.
Char: I didn’t know what she looked like for about three hours because I just couldn’t look at her When I did, I knew she was cool. We were both so nervous but we clicked straight away and felt like we had known each other for ages. There wasn’t a moment in there that we weren’t enjoying it. We were laughing the whole time.
What did you find that you had in common?
Sarah: We noticed we have the same music taste at first. I have Paramore tattoos and Char likes emo music. We bonded over that straight away and we didn’t really notice many differences to be honest.
They made it seem like that there was a big drinking difference between us which isn’t actually the case at all. I think they just showed that because they didn’t have anything else to show and needed to keep that “will they won’t they?” narrative.
Char: We finish each other’s sentences and everything – that’s the level that we’ve always been on. We say the same things, we make the same jokes. I think we were lucky enough to genuinely be ourselves in there.
Why do you think it was important that a mainstream show included LGBTQI couples?
Char: I think it’s so good to normalise it. It has completely normalised gay dating and it shows that we just date exactly the same way as straight people do.
Was is especially important as femme lesbians?
Sarah: Definitely. I don’t feel like there’s that many lesbians on TV but if there is there’s usually one that’s a lot more butch.
Char: I think that it highlighted not just the struggles of gay dating, but the struggles of femme gay dating. There are lots of stereotypes and if somebody “looks” like a lesbian nobody questions it, but when you’re femme you get questioned all of the time.
What has life been like since the show and what has the reaction been like?
Sarah: The reaction has been absolutely amazing. It’s overwhelmed us in a really good way. We’ve had a lot of people saying we’ve done them proud.
Char: A lot of people from the community have said we represented the community so well. It’s an honour because that’s what we want to do: normalise who we are as people. We’re overwhelmed every day with the messages that we get.
It was never highlighted that we were gay. I think they just showed us as normal daters. Hopefully it’s the way forward on mainstream TV. I think we should pitch for a completely gay Love Island – can you imagine how much fun that would be?
That would make my life! What are your Valentines’s Day Plans?
Char: Sarah’s got plans for me but I’m not allowed to know! We have a YouTube channel now though so we’ll be recording it and putting it out there.
Sarah: We got such a good reaction and people wanted to know more about us as a couple so we thought it would be a good idea to keep sharing our experience. We can use that as a platform to use our voices.
Make sure you subscribe to The Charah Show over on YouTube for even more insider knowledge from The Cabins and to keep up to date with this blossoming celesbian romance. ❤️
Only reading DIVA online? You’re missing out. For more news, reviews and commentary, check out the latest issue. It’s pretty badass, if we do say so ourselves.
