Her rise to fame from humble beginnings has been remarkable – but it didn’t stop GK Barry from feeling ‘terrified’ at the prospect of her first shows on Loose Women

GK Barry went from posting hilariously unfiltered content on TikTok during the Covid lockdowns in 2020, to launching her podcast, Saving Grace in 2022. Last year she made history by becoming the youngest panellist to join ITV chatshow Loose Women – something the in-demand 25-year-old says is a ‘dream come true’ for her.

Now a regular panellist on the female-led show, GK – real name Grace Keeling, admits during an exclusive chat with OK! that though she feels right at home now, it was a rather scary prospect stepping into the studio to do her first few shows, with the thought of debating with one particular panellist making her more nervous than others.

The TikTok star asked not to be put with Janet Street Porter at first – but said she was ‘adorable'(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

“I was terrified. I begged them, please wait till I’m in the groove before you put me on the panel with Janet Street-Porter!”, reveals the witty star, with trademark honesty. “Then I did my show with her and she was adorable. But I was so scared at the beginning, thinking, this audience doesn’t know me — I’m some young woman off TikTok. But now I love it.”

Grace, who was born in 1996 – the same year that Loose Women first came on-air, adds: “Sitting with Kaye [Adams], Denise [Welch]… Loose has me, Olivia [Attwood], Frankie [Bridge] giving a different perspective. It’s fascinating, they’re all such interesting women. They’ve lived a life, you know?”

And the social media sensation, who went public with her footballer girlfriend Ella Rutherford last year, admits that she does battle with imposter syndrome, from time to time., when she thinks of her incredible path to fame.

“I started this whole thing by accident, I expected nothing — though when I was a kid I did want to be a Pussycat Doll, which didn’t quite work out. Being in the public eye was an amazing accident.

Grace calls her impressive career trajectory ‘an amazing accident'(Image: Elisabeth Hoff / Reach PLC)

“Even in the jungle I’d be like, ‘What exactly have I done to be sitting here beside Tulisa and Coleen Rooney?’ I’m not sure, but I’m not complaining.”

She may have done an awful lot into her 25 years, but Grace has no intention of slowing down, and has a few burning ambitions she’d like to tick off. Her girlfriend would like her to do The Traitors, but she admits she’d swiftly get the boot as she “always looks guilty when she’s not”.

Grace admits that she would also love to be a guest on the sofa on The Graham Norton Show — but her absolute dream, she says, is to one day have her very own chat show, in the style of Alan Carr: Chatty Man.

GK Barry’s limited-edition Echo Falls Summer Berries isavailable from July until the end of summer at all majorgrocery stores. See Echo Falls on Instagram @echo_falls