Jacob Rees-Mogg and wife Helena’s strict condition for making new reality TV show

When Jacob Rees-Mogg and his wife Helena agreed to let TV cameras follow their every move for an upcoming fly-on-the-wall documentary, they laid down only one rule for its producers. Filming aspects of the couple’s domestic life, including their six children, was fine and par for the course. But showing private attire or nudity on camera was strictly prohibited.

“There were no bedrooms, no bathrooms, no nightwear, no underwear. Thank God! I think we can all agree on that,” exclaims Helena, 47, the wife of the very wealthy, right-wing Conservative, and heiress to a £45million fortune.

“The mind boggles gently,” smiles Jacob at her side.

The couple certainly would not want to reveal any more of themselves than necessary, they stress. “As Margaret Thatcher once said, ‘No, no, no!’” remarks Jacob, before Helena adds: “As the Princess Royal once said to Cherie Blair, ‘Let’s not go there, Mrs Blair.’”

Now in unstoppable full flow, the couple continue their thought process, uninterrupted. It would be bad form to do so, after all.

“We weren’t going to be filmed in a state of undress,” says Jacob, the former MP for North East Somerset. “That was only broken once when I play cricket with Alfred and I take my jacket off. I am shown wearing my braces. I’m sorry to say, it is very bad manners to allow your braces to be filmed. I do apologise to the viewing public.”

“At least the braces made sure your trousers didn’t fall down,” Helena chimes in, quick as a flash. Jacob can’t help but agree. “Well, that would have been far worse, yes.”

Welcome to the eccentric, antiquated and thoroughly entertaining world of the Rees-Mogg, the family who are about to become television’s biggest reality stars since the Kardashians took over our screens.

Their five-part series, which streams on Discovery+ from next Monday, covers the couple as they juggle very busy lives over the last year in their two beautiful homes, a Grade II* listed 17th-century Somerset mansion and a splendid townhouse in central London.

Jacob, a hardline Tory Brexiteer who lost his seat in North East Somerset and Hanham in July’s general election, would be the first to acknowledge that making this series opens him up to the possibility of ridicule.

“I’m well aware that there are risks in reality TV,” he drawls, in his distinct Old Etonian vowels.

Might the Rees-Moggs risk turning into the Kardashians, that other sprawling family from across the pond who are also known for speaking frankly?

“I think this will be a rather different kettle of fish actually from the Kardashians,” Jacob, 55, quips, dressed in his typical smart double-breasted suit, immaculately pressed for his interview with the Express.

When urged to explain why he thinks his show will be so different, he has the good grace to admit: “Well, I’ve no idea because I’ve never watched the programmes about them, so I don’t really have a clue!”

For her part, Helena says: “I was probably concerned that our house wouldn’t look like a complete tip, which, despite everyone’s best efforts, I’m afraid it quite often does. We have five boys who are always playing cricket, sometimes in the house, which obviously isn’t actually allowed!

“And five or six of us ride, so there’s a lot of gear and clobber and mud – welcome to Somerset! I try, of course, to run, with a lot of help, two calm and orderly homes – whoops! I’m trying to ensure that each one is not chaotic. But yes, it does involve a lot of frantic tidying.”

There are chaotic scenes aplenty in Moggland, but the thread of politics runs throughout, with the first two episodes focused on the lead-up to the summer general election. But what people will really relish are the juicy insights into the privileged, and sometimes bonkers, world of the family, who enjoy a weekly candlelit black-tie dinner on Saturdays and have their every need attended to by a team of waiting staff.

But let us not forget that Sir Jacob, the son of a Baron, is one of the most divisive and controversial politicians in the country –something the documentary-makers are keen to remind its viewers rather frequently.

And Helena, wearing a striking red, white and black patterned dress, confesses that she has grave concerns about how her family will be received in their fly-on-the-stately-home-wall series.

“I just hope we don’t all come across as absolutely awful, completely out-of-touch people,” she says.

Amusingly, the mother-of-six, who likes to dress her family in clothes from the upmarket fashion brand Boden, continues: “I hope I don’t get a cease-and-desist letter from [company owner] Johnnie Boden: ‘Could you please not wear my clothes, you awful Tory right-wing, fox-hunting Brexiteer?’” she says.

In the event, she need not have worried. While Jacob’s politics may not be everyone’s cup of Earl Grey, Meet the Rees-Moggs paints a picture of an eccentric, yet charming and loving family. And much of that is down to Helena.

Jacob may be famous for his impeccably pressed, exquisitely tailored bespoke pinstripe slacks, but there is no doubt here who wears the trousers in this marriage. That was obvious from the moment the devoutly Catholic Jacob proposed to his then-girlfriend.

Helena – who is mother to Peter, 17, Mary, 16, Thomas, 14, Anselm, 12, Alfred, eight, and Sixtus, seven (a name shared with five popes, most recently in 1590) – takes up the story: “We had a very nice dinner – and afterwards Jacob said, ‘You should marry me.’ ‘But I want a lot of children,’ I said. ‘Great, so do I. We can have 12, a cricket team.’ I said, ‘Minimum four, maximum six’.”

Would Helena ever relent and ever consider a seventh, perhaps called Septus? “No, thank you very much. I think, frankly, the world’s got quite enough Rees-Moggs already, hasn’t it?” she smiles.

While she may call the shots, what is also clear from the documentary is that the couple are exceedingly close. Helena, who is a descendant of Thomas Wentworth, a prominent supporter of Charles I, says that she was smitten by Jacob from the moment they started dating. “He would call it courting, but if I’m honest, I couldn’t really think about anything else other than Jacob at that stage. Obviously, I didn’t tell him that!”

At one point in the interview, having laughed off the jokey idea that she might occasionally be tempted to replace her husband’s cider with battery acid, Helena looks over lovingly at Jacob and declares: “I do actually love him.”

When pushed to reveal the secret of romance, however, Jacob refuses outright. “Me? Give advice on romance?” he chuckles incredulously, unwilling or unable to let his archetypally English stiff-upper-lip wobble.

The former Cabinet minister adds: “I think telling people what romance is means that things are about to go wrong.

“It’s like MPs who write about how they won their marginal seat; they always lose the seat at the next election. It’s the type of hubris that is catastrophic, so I’m not going to answer that.”

He admits that he certainly had no idea about romance when he was attempting to think of a birthday present for Helena before they were married. “I tried to get from a bookshop Veronica Wedgwood’s excellent biography of Thomas Wentworth, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any copies.

“So instead, I went into Fortnum and Mason and bought a pair of earrings.

“Did you know ladies prefer to be given a pair of earrings to a book on their distinguished ancestors?

“I was absolutely bemused by this.”

The Rees-Moggs’ relationship is undoubtedly helped by the fact that Helena is very tolerant of her husband’s many anachronistic views.

This, after all, is a man who seems to pride himself on being out of step with modern life and was once described as “The Honourable Member for the 18th century”.

An extremely affluent man – Spear’s Wealth Management has estimated that his net worth is “well over £100million” – Jacob confesses that he has always been spoiled. His housekeeper in Somerset freely admits that she still irons his boxer shorts.

“I was completely indulged by Nanny and by everybody,” he says. “I was the youngest.

“I’m glad to say I’ve been indulged for the rest of my life now by my kind wife. So I’m not going to complain about the good fortune I’ve had.”

Their children continue to be looked after by Veronica Crook, who has been the Rees-Mogg family nanny since before Jacob was born.

“Veronica is a member of the family. Bear in mind, she pre-dates me,” says Jacob. “She’s been with the family for 59 years, and I’m now 55, so it’s a good innings. And as she’s pointed out to me, you get a shorter sentence for murder.”

Jacob often uses the sort of ornate language that would not look out of place in a Jane Austen novel. Observing being drenched by a downpour outside Number 10, Downing Street when announcing the general election, he comments: “I think his tailor will be a little bit upset to see his hard work being ruined by the precipitation.”

But what draws him and Helena together is a shared sense of humour. Helena, in particular, is a comedy natural.

When asked what first attracted her to Jacob, without missing a beat she replies: “Well, nothing because I was one year old. Our parents were old friends.”

Jacob’s political stance draws a lot of opposition. In the documentary, he is often heckled by people in the street while out canvassing. A sign supporting him outside his mother’s house is graffitied with a phrase that I cannot repeat in a family newspaper.

Yet Helena displays great equanimity in the face of such open hostility. “If you choose to be a politician or choose to marry someone who is in politics, you have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth,” she says.

“Not everyone will agree with a politician on everything. Take – everyone is entitled to express their opinion.

“As long as it doesn’t tip over into actual physical violence, that’s fine. It’s just part of political life.”

Make that soon-to-be reality TV life.

Meet the Rees-Moggs streams on Discovery+ from Monday