GK Barry is one of England’s top TikTok stars after rocketing to stardom for her funny videos during lockdown.
Four years later, she’s the youngest panellist on Loose Women and in the cast for I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
Her big social media platform even led to her meeting her girlfriend - a footballer for an English club.
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What is GK Barry’s real name?
GK’s real name is Grace Eleanor Keeling. She explained that she initially wanted to keep her real name private and chose the username @gkbarry - using her initials and the surname of her friend, Tatiana Barry.
Childhood
Grace was born on 12 August 1999, making her 25 years old.
She is originally from Cambridge, but at the age of two she moved to the British Virgin Islands and remained there for six years.
At eight, her family returned to England and lived in Nottingham.
Rise to stardom
Grace studied film at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and graduated with a master's in digital marketing.
While studying, she worked on the set of the BBC soap opera Doctors and later on the Netflix movie Hood, made videos for ShawMind and Nottinghamshire Police and helped with the rebrand of the Nottingham Women's Centre.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she began posting videos and started going viral in 2020.
Two years later, she launched her successful podcast Saving Grace, which has sold out tours across England.
She also became the youngest panellist ever on Loose Women earlier this summer before taking part in the twenty-fourth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
Relationship
Grace began speaking about her new relationship on her podcast, but kept the person’s identity a secret. She teased that the person was a female footballer and that it was her first relationship with a woman.
The couple remained private until confirming their romance in a sweet birthday tribute in August 2024.
Her girlfriend and football player for Ipswich Town, Ella Rutherford, wrote on social media: “Happy Birthday babe, I love you more and more every day”. She added a pink heart emoji.
Grace previously shared that she first saw her girlfriend on Instagram and they followed each other. She said: “I saw her Instagram and I thought 'hello’”
People were convinced that the couple had secretly gotten married after Grace shared a TikTok video with the caption: “Welcome to another episode of cooking for my wife, because I'm a WAG. And when she gets back from football she's a vicious hungry beast.”
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