You’d be hard pressed to find a couple more in love than Gogglebox’s Lee and Keith.
Celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary this November, theirs is a marriage filled with affection, admiration, loyalty, and truth – elements which they say are key to a strong and happy relationship.
WATCH: Gogglebox star Sarah Marie’s gorgeous baby shower
But as New Idea visits the pair at their Melbourne home ahead of Gogglebox’s new season premiere, we were shocked to learn they almost never made it down the aisle!
“When we first started dating everything was going fine, but I wasn’t ready to settle down,” Keith, 62, tells us as we’re warmly welcomed into the couple’s instantly recognisable lounge room.
“He wasn’t ready for a girlfriend,” interjects Lee, 61, with a laugh. “He hadn’t sowed his wild oats yet.”
At her wits’ end, Lee was forced to give Keith an ultimatum – which resulted in him getting kicked out of her car!

Realising he’d won the lottery with Lee, Keith slowly, but surely, worked his way back into her good books. “About six months later we got back together,” he reveals – and the rest, as they say, is history!
Reminiscing about their first date at North Melbourne’s Eldorado Hotel, Lee shares: “It was funny, because one of Keith’s mates was there and he kept staring at us. And he goes, ‘You know what? You two are going to get married.’”
Four decades and two children later, the pair still enjoy date nights, which they say is one of the many keys to their happy marriage.
It’s a question Lee often gets asked by fans. “I say that we tell each other everything. We have no secrets. We never lie to each other,” the grandmother of one reveals.
WATCH: Mick and Di announce they are quitting Gogglebox due to COVID-19 fears
“We’ve always been like that. You have to be best friends with the person you’re married to, someone you can tell everything to even if it’s embarrassing, upsetting or hurtful, you need to be able to.”
This unfiltered, tell-it-like-it-is approach to life is what has made Lee and Keith fan favourites with Gogglebox viewers.
The pair have been part of the show since it started back in 2015, and this season Aussies will watch the TV-loving duo dissecting Married at First Sight. If there’s one word the couple would use to describe it, it’s blasphemy.
“We’ll be watching it,” says Lee, who has a few choice words for the show’s experts, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla.

“They can’t be called ‘experts’ because even I can see these people shouldn’t be together. I’m always screaming at the TV!”
As for Keith, he has some advice for the couples who are currently drawing in huge ratings for Channel Nine.
“Don’t do it!” he jokes, before finding middle ground. “Nah, go and get married. Why should we be the only ones living in misery,” he laughs.
Dating is certainly different in 2023, and the pair can’t wrap their heads around trying to find The One in the technological age, especially Keith.
WATCH: Gogglebox tribute to Di Kershaw
“When I was young, you’d go to the pub. And you’d go, ‘yes, yes yes.’ Now they get on the apps and go, ‘no, no, no’”, he says.
“It’s scary these days. On the apps it could be anybody,” adds Lee.
One love story that played out for TV viewers that Lee and Keith can support is that of their former Gogglebox cast members Mick Kershaw and his late wife, Di.
Di passed away last July after a short battle with throat cancer. She and Mick had been married for more than 50 years.

“Like us, they did everything together. They knew each other and they were in love with each other,” Keith says, thinking long and hard about their grieving friend Mick.
“They didn’t hold back,” says Lee, who also admired Di’s wit, determination, and fearlessness.
Doing “everything together” is what makes Lee and Keith tick, and they want their fans to take that from Di’s legacy, as well as their own.
“I can’t understand those people who are married but they can’t stand to be around each other,” Lee says, in her charming, matter-of-fact way. “I love Keith being around me.”

“He’s going on long service leave and I’ll have him around for 14 months. We’ll be able to sit out and have a coffee, just the two of us. We’ve got a Harley [Davidson], so we’ll go for a ride together.”
“We shop together, do the grocery shopping together – we do everything together. It might sound weird, but we’ve always done it that way.”
“Keith’s the man that can make me laugh when I don’t want to laugh. He won’t let me stay angry.”
For Keith, when it comes to his favourite quality in Lee, he says it’s her honesty. “She doesn’t bulls**t. She’s beautiful and trusting.”
For more, pick up the latest issue of New Idea!