In a culture obsessed with finding romance, presenters, podcasters and proud “professional yappers” Ally and G are making a compelling case for something just as powerful: friendship.
Known for their unfiltered conversations, quick-fire humour and emotional honesty, the duo’s topical and highly entertaining podcast ‘Leave A Message’ explores everything from love and heartbreak to ambition, identity and the realities of growing up – all through the lens of a friendship built on trust, laughter and showing up for one another.
With a dynamic that’s equal parts chaotic and deeply considered, Ally & G have built a loyal community (affectionally known as ‘the gallies’) by saying the things most people think, but rarely say out loud, proving that truth and authenticity can be just as powerful, formative and worthy of the spotlight.
Fresh from making history on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! as the show’s first-ever digital reporters and Jungle Insiders, we sat down with the ladies (aka your new internet besties) to talk first encounters, dishing out advice, the power of unity, and how best to balance business and friendship…
LADIES! Let me start off by saying, you are the modern day definition of friendship goals!
Ally: (laughs) ahh yes!! We love to hear that!
G: That’s genuinely sweet, and so lovely to hear, thank you… we try our best!
If we were to turn back the clock a few years, to a time before fate brought the two of you together – what did life look like for each of you?
G: Both of us were basically working filler jobs as a way to pay the bills, but side hustling hard, trying to get the place we were now. I was based full time at the BBC, and Al was working as a private tutor.
Ally: Ahh, the days of the side hustle! That was totally our vibe back then wasn’t it?
G: (Laughing) it really was! I was more focused on the music side of the industry, while Al was over in the film world doing odd jobs on the side of our ‘real’ jobs – basically just trying to make a name for ourselves. To an outsider looking in, we both probably looked quite directionless…
Ally: …but we were definitely working hard towards a dream.
What were some of the individual dreams and aspirations you back then?
G: Weirdly I’d say the dreams and aspirations we had back then, are probably the same as the ones we have now. And I think that’s one of the main reasons why we clicked right away, because our hopes for the future were almost identical.
Ally: Totally. Right before we met, my biggest thing was, yes I had all of these ambitions, but I didn’t know what path to take to make them become a reality. I really couldn’t see a way to get from A to Z.
G: I was exactly the same! And I don’t know about you, but I always felt like those end goals seemed very far away, and no matter what I did, I never seemed to get any closer to achieving them – no matter what work I did or projects I was involved in.
Ally: The things we used to do G…
G: Oh God, I would die if we had to watch any of those old clips back!
Ally: I hope they get scrubbed from the internet!
So the story goes, the two of you first met in your 20’s whilst working at a community radio station…
G: That is true, we did! And can I just say, kudos to everyone out there who does community radio, because it’s not easy. You have to give a lot, with no guaranteed return. You’re truly doing it for the love of broadcasting and entertaining.
With all that you had going on in your lives at that time, was a new friendship something you were both looking for, or craving?
Ally: Honestly, this thing, this bond between us, came out of nowhere! I didn’t expected it, I wasn’t looking for it, it was simply not on my radar. But it was a really, really nice and wonderful surprise.
G: I don’t think I’d ever really thought about how special it would be to have a friendship that could in some way cross over into work! When you’re freelancing and doing similar jobs to what we were doing at the time we met, it’s often hard to make genuine, lasting connections with people, because you’re all sort of living contract to contract, and moving from project to project. I have friends who have amazing relationships with colleagues they’ve met through work! Initially they’re obviously bonded by that shared love for what they do, and then because they see each other most days, they’re able to develop a friendship that transcends past quote on quote “office hours”. But when you’re freelance you don’t always have that continuity. So when Al and I found ourselves working together in the same space, bonding and discovering that we were exactly the same yet also totally different, it was then I realised what I’d been missing out on, and that in fact a friendship like ours was something I really needed to make my life better.
Looking back, before you knew what your relationship would become, was there something about that initial encounter that felt instantly exciting or significant?
Ally: 100%! And I can’t really explain it, but from the moment we saw each other it was just obvious we were going to be best friends.
G: We were in this room full of people, and without saying a word, we just gravitated towards each other.
Ally: The memory of the moment is still so strong in my mind! I always say I can remember exactly what G was wearing – a camel trench coat, brown Zara sock boots and she was carrying this little Moschino bag, with her copper hair looking all cute, and I just thought: “oh my God, she is so bloody cool!”
G: For me, it was all about what Ally spoke about. She was the only person in the room who was unapologetically sparky and vibrant. She was like: “yeah so I’d really like to create some content about sex and relationships!” And I just thought… that’s my girl!
It’s often said that opposites attract, but like you’ve already said, many relationships are born out of shared interests, senses of humour and common values. What would you say are some of the similarities, and differences that bond you?
Both: We are total polar opposites!
Ally: As personality types… yeah we’re polar opposites! And actually, thinking about it, even the way we see the world… oh my god, we really are complete and total opposites aren’t we? (Laughs). But do you know what? I think that’s the reason why what we do works. If we thought the same, and had the same viewpoint on absolutely everything, I genuinely don’t think we would have gotten as far as we have.
G: We come at things from two different perspectives, which I think is great! We always say to the gallies, whenever we’re debating a subject, you’re either an Ally or a G, there’s no in-between, there’s no middle ground (laughs). I will say though, our aligned vision of what we both want to achieve, is always spot on! It’s very rare that we will come up against an obstacle, and have two different ideas of how to get around it. Our thought process when it comes to problem solving is very similar.
Ally: Yeah, and we always want the best for each other.
What was the moment you realised your friendship could evolve into a business partnership, and how did you navigate that shift without losing what made your connection special?
G: Working on our radio show helped us to build a really strong foundation. We learnt so much about each other through all of the different conversations we were having, publicly and privately. We found that we’d both spent years coming up against the same issue, which was, how do I get my foot in the door? That shared frustration and fight to carry on united us, and we soon realised that many hands make light work!
Ally: We felt like making content together was a good place to start. The plan was to do nothing all that adventurous or complicated, just a few silly TikTok’s to get the ball rolling… G, do you remember that ABBA music video we did?
G: Let’s not talk about that right now Al (laughs). So from TikTok (whispers) to ABBA music videos, it then became all about us in the car, chatting about anything and everything! It was a simple concept, nothing too out of the ordinary, but it just that little bit different from what everyone else was doing. We started to post episodes on our YouTube channel, as unlisted links that we could send out to people to give them a feel for what we were about.
Ally: The feedback we got was that people really liked what we were doing! It was a happy accident, that became the start of everything happening for us. From there we were approached by a management company, and I think that made us both go: “okay, maybe we’re onto something here if professionals in the industry are reaching out to us.”
G: Yeah, I do think there was a moment where we both looked at each other and said: “are you ready to let go of your solo ambitions and work on this together?” and we decided that we were.
What are the positives of working with your bestie? I would imagine it makes you a whole lot braver having your ride or die by your side…
Ally: Oh 100% – I feel a lot braver having G with me! Both of us often say that we couldn’t imagine doing anything of this alone. Making content can be quite detrimental to your psyche, especially when you’re on your own because you tend to question yourself, and overthink what you’re doing because there’s nobody there to bounce ideas off of. Working with someone else takes away a lot of the pressure, and makes the process a whole lot more enjoyable.
G: Yeah, it’s so much more fun working with a partner!
Ally: We’ve found that positivity can be quite contagious. So we build each other up and encourage one another to keeping pushing forward. It’s so nice to feel that positivity, and sharing our wins together is brilliant.
G: But equally, if something fails, which it often does, you can share in that disappointment with each other too. Whereas when things don’t work out when you’re on your own, you can feel a bit deflated and take the hit a lot more personally.
Ally: Yeah, when you’re working solo it’s really easy to go to that place of thinking you’re not good enough, when things go wrong or don’t work out as you’d hoped. But when you’re working as a duo, or as part of a team, or in our case, with you’re bestie (laughs) you feel a responsibility to stay strong and step up for each other.
There’s often a lot of emphasis placed upon romantic relationships, and we’re told that’s what we’re supposed to strive for in life. But friendships, in my opinion, are equally as important and often longer lasting… it’s like the Spice Girls said: ‘friendship never ends’ right?
Ally: Okay, so even as someone who is in relationship, I find the focus that whole world seems to have on romantic love being a persons one, true calling in life, so fucking boring! You can have no partner, but an amazing garden of friends, and still be happy! It’s not an either or thing. We get so many voice notes on the pod about this, or of girls saying to us: “my best friend has a new boyfriend and she’s forgotten about me” and I just want to scream, and say: “just so you know, husbands can leave you!” So my motto is, cherish your friendships, and if you have a good one, go out of your way to nurture it, because they are hard to find.
G: We always hope that anybody listening to our podcast, or watching one of our videos, finds some sort of companionship in our content. I think a lot of people see themselves, and their friends, in us – and we love that! Our favourite kind of feedback is when somebody says: “you sound just like me and my friends!”
Ally: And we strive to show all sides of our friendship!
G: Yeah, we don’t shy away from showing a little bit of conflict!
Ally: Absolutely not! She (G) got a tattoo and I was fuming about it! I was not afraid to let her know that (laughs).
When friendship and business overlap, how do you make sure one doesn’t come at the expense of the other?
Ally: One of our biggest blessings is the fact that our friendship has only ever existed within the parameters of working together. If we had been friends from childhood I think things would be different because you we’d have more emotional history to pull from. The way we are now, is all we’ve eve known.
G: Our friendship is rooted in our business, and our business is rooted in our friendship.
Ally: From the beginning we were very clear about the fact that we would be sharing everything. Our friendship is too special to throw away over anything. And as long as we both know and remember that, then it’s all good forevermore.
G: We do joke that we maybe need to set more boundaries though don’t we? (Laughs).
Ally: Yeah, but I don’t think that’s going to happen is it? We’re good as we are babe!
And how do you balance authenticity with the pressure to perform or keep up momentum online?
Ally: That’s a really good question. We often talk about how wild this industry is, in the sense that you can always see what your peers are doing. And because of that you can feel a pressure to feel like you always have to be working on creating content, and posting, posting, posting.
G: It can be tempting at times to follow the crowd, or jump on a trend because in your mind you think that if you do, you’ll see the same results as others. That’s not always the case.
Ally: And sometimes you see people get the jobs that you didn’t, and you can’t help but think: “well if we were doing the same as them then maybe the brand would have wanted us instead…” which is not a good headspace to be in. The beauty of there being two of us is that there’s always someone around to keep us in check and say: “wait, do we really actually want to do this? Or are we just being jealous for the sake of being jealous?”
G: Most days at least one of us is awake and alert to this! So if I’m having a wobble, Al is there to be the voice of reason, and vice versa.
Ally: I also thinking getting to know what your audience wants helps.
G: Yeah that helps massively! We know the gallies, like really know them! They are the third seat at the table. We’re always saying: “wait, would the gallies think this is cool?” We’re always considering them, and that helps to keep us on the right track.
Ally: And we also work with a brilliant team! Between us and them, we’ve developed such a clear strategy of what we want and what we don’t, so sometimes when things pop up, it doesn’t need to be a conversation, because we’re all crystal clear on our vision for the future.
G: We’ve learnt how to block out the noise.
Your podcast ’Leave A Message’ relaunches TODAY! What can you tell me about the new season?
G: Honestly, we are so thrilled the podcast is back! We had longer off than we thought we would, which in hindsight was a really good thing, because it’s enabled us to refocus and return to the gallies feeling refreshed and ready to take on their dilemmas with a new perspective.
Ally: Format wise, it’s basically more of the same, though we do have a few new segments and… wait for it guys, we’re now accepting emails as well as voice notes!
For anyone who feels self-conscious about their accent and therefore hesitant to send a voice note, the option to submit a dilemma via email is sure to be a real game changer…
G: We LOVE a regional accent! And I promise you, I’m not even joking, we were literally just talking about this the other day because our producer is from ‘up north’, and they were saying how cool it would be to have more of a variety of accents on the pod to make it sound that bit more interesting to listen to, and I fully agree! So anybody reading this who has a strong regional accent, get in touch!
Ally: Yes, please do! We’d love to hear from you and help solve any of your problems.
G: We like drama, we like dilemmas… we like the d’s (laughs).
How has the podcast deepen your connection with your audience in ways social media couldn’t?
Ally: Well, simply put ‘Leave A Message’ only exists because of our audience! Without them and their input and contributions, we’d have no show. The gallies set the agenda, and the conversation flows from there.
G: We always say, there is no us without them… and we genuinely mean that! In a way, we’re playing a bit of a risky game because where other podcasts rely on having weekly guests to form the basis of their episodes, we rely on our listeners to provide us with content, and if they didn’t… well, like I said, there’d be no pod, literally (laughs).
Ally: Can you imagine if we turned up to record an ep, only to discover no-one had sent us anything?
G: To this day we’ve never had to stage or fake a voice note… not that we ever would obviously (laughs). But I think that’s brilliant that we’ve never been in that position. The messages are still coming in thick and fast, and for that we’re so grateful.
Was there a particular episode or moment that changed how you viewed the potential of the pod?
Ally: I know we keep harping on about the gallies, but I really think seeing how they reacted and engaged with episodes right of the gate made us both think: “maybe we’re onto something here…”
G: The feedback we’ve had has been incredible! We often say that a lot of people want an insight to a friendship that’s not their own, and I think that’s what we provide for people.
Ally: We’re not saving lives here, but I think we are giving people a safe place to vent their frustrations and concerns… and crazy, wild dilemmas (laughs). The gallies have placed their trust in us, and we take that very seriously. We handle their problems with care, and we do our best to give helpful and honest advice.
G: Often our takes on situations and pondering’s on what actions are best to take are completely opposite… we’re not singing from the same hymn sheet basically, and I think that’s helpful to people. They can take elements of what we say on board, and disregard the parts they don’t agree with (laughs).
As we look to the rest of the year, what are some of your goals and aspirations?
Ally: The list is long, and I don’t know how much time we have, so I’ll just say high on our agenda of things to do in 2026 is to do some more live shows for the pod!
G: YES! We did some live dates last year, and they were two of the best nights of our lives! I’m not even joking! So we’re desperate to do that again. Personally for me…
Ally: Sorry, I’m just going to interrupt you, and finish that sentence on your behalf! Personally, G needs to date a famous! And believe me, we WILL make that happen this year (laughs).
G: She keeps saying this and I’m already fatigued by it! I’ve been on one date already this year and I just don’t know if I can keep doing this!
Ally: I don’t care, we’re not giving up! We’re aiming for A List, but as we’re Z list, I think we may have to settle for someone on the B list… or maybe the C list.
G: Ahh thank you so much (laughs).
Ally: You’re welcome babe! Anybody reading this, if you know any single B or C list celebs, drop us a voice note…
‘Leave A Message’ is available on all podcast providers.