Anna Archer and Eli Topp recently hit the small screen as one of eight couples in Olivia Attwood's latest reality TV venture, Bad Boyfriends. Following their departure from the series' relationship bootcamp, proclaiming themselves 'stronger than ever', Eli went all out for Anna's 25th birthday, throwing an extravagant Ibiza-themed party which saw him fork out £30K.
"It was crazy, I couldn't even take it all in when I walked in," Anna told OK! after the shindig, understandably feeling a little rough post-celebration. The star-studded bash had an line-up of her reality TV colleagues plus an array of live performances that included fire breathers, dancers, a contortionist, sax and percussion musicians, and sets by Ibiza DJ PJ Gardiner.
Anna dazzled in a bespoke mini dress adorned with gold detailing, while guests, Eli included, stuck to the chic all-white dress code. Eli, 43, confessed that he invested five months into planning the perfect birthday bash for his partner Anna: "I don't know how many hours I've spent on this but I was planning everything to the last detail, I put schedules together, got the guest list together, sent the reminders to guests and told them what they were allowed to wear and bring. Everything, I even got Anna's cake in her favourite colours."
When Anna made her grand entrance, arriving to a vodka ice sculpture and a flower arch courtesy of Eli, she admitted it was more than she anticipated. "I didn't want a big entrance, Eli made me do a big entrance, I was like, 'Oh, my God. It's my worst nightmare', I was trying to sneak in the back! But after a little while I got to really enjoy it," she said.
Wanting to make her 25th a memorable event, Eli shared: "Anna had told me that she's never really had a big birthday party, it's always just been with her family or something small. So I thought, 'You know what, I'm going to make her the biggest and best birthday party ever'. 25 is a milestone that should be celebrated right," As we chuckled about how Eli plans to outdo himself for Anna's 30th, he hinted at bigger plans: "There might be a wedding before the 30th, that will be next level". Reflecting on their bond, Anna teased: "He can't be that bad a boyfriend if he's done all of this for me".
Anna and Eli made the decision to exit the reality show Bad Boyfriends prematurely, following a challenging period of separation and stress within the intense environment of the program. Despite leaving early, they feel their relationship is stronger than ever before.
Anna confidently shared, "I think we're probably the strongest couple from the show," and elaborated that despite the scepticism they faced, they have outlasted other couples who've since broken up and dealt with drama.
Despite the show's premise to surprise the boyfriends involved, Anna admitted Eli knew something was going on: "Eli knew something was going on, he's really good at knowing things like that, it's like he had a sixth sense so he didn't look too surprised to see me when I showed up."
While Bad Boyfriends is designed for women trying to amend their partners' troubling habits, Eli insists they weren't in desperate need of the show's intervention: "I don't think we needed to change things, but, I guess I did realise that sometimes I could say things which were upsetting Anna and I couldn't see that, so it did help with that."
Anna added: "I get a lot of, 'You're with Eli for his money' or whatever from people. And he gets a lot of hate from people saying he was controlling on the show and that he doesn't really care about me. But we only care about how people in our lives and that we've known for years see us, not anyone else."
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