By the sofa where Britain first fell in love with them, Steve Sheehan now sits with a very different weight in his heart.
For years, he and his wife Sue have been the easy laughter of Gogglebox — the couple whose warmth made millions feel like family. But behind the familiar armchairs and quick jokes, Steve has been fighting a battle no camera ever captured.
The moment Sue’s smile began to fade, everything changed.
“When Bell’s palsy arrived, it didn’t knock politely,” Steve says quietly. “It just took a part of her away overnight. The woman who never stopped smiling suddenly couldn’t recognise herself in the mirror. And there was nothing I could do to fix it.”
Except stay.
Steve doesn’t talk about heroics. He talks about mornings. About learning new routines, brushing past his own fear so Sue wouldn’t see it in his eyes. About sitting in hospital waiting rooms pretending to read leaflets he’d already memorised, just so she wouldn’t feel watched or pitied.
“There were days she’d say, ‘I don’t look like me anymore,’” he recalls. “And all I could think was, how do I make her feel beautiful when she can’t see it herself?”
So he did the only thing he knew how to do.
He made tea she didn’t ask for. He cracked the same tired jokes he’s told for decades. He held her face gently when she didn’t want to look in the mirror — not to make her change, but to remind her that the woman he married was still right there.
“I wasn’t scared of the illness,” Steve admits. “I was scared of her feeling alone in it.”
Friends say Steve became Sue’s shadow — driving her to appointments, keeping the house light when the days were heavy, pretending recovery was a series of tiny wins rather than a long road he couldn’t see the end of.
But Steve never frames it as sacrifice.
“This is marriage,” he shrugs. “It’s not the vows. It’s the Tuesday mornings when your heart is breaking and you still have to make someone laugh.”
Now, as Sue takes each day as it comes, Steve remains on the same sofa, same seat, same promise.
“I don’t need her to be better tomorrow,” he says softly. “I just need her to know she’s not walking through this by herself. If I can be the one thing that doesn’t change for her, then I’ve done my job.”
In a world obsessed with grand gestures, Steve Sheehan’s love is quieter than most.
But it’s also unbreakable.