Romance novels and rom-com feature films have taught us that love can pop up in the most unexpected places, so you better be ready in case your soul mate is waiting around the corner… or appearing on a reality show of which you host. If you follow Ant Anstead on social media, or are anticipating his new program Celebrity IOU: Joyride, you might know that he’s dating two-time Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger after the two met through the show. Now we are getting a little more detail about the meet-cute that happened in TV land, courtesy of the Property Brothers, themselves, Jonathan and Drew Scott.
ET caught up with the brothers recently and talked about Jonathan’s relationship with The Celebrity Dating Game co-host Zooey Deschanel, a real-estate program they might collaborate on, and their role in setting up Ant Anstead and Renee Zellweger. Jonathan and Drew Scott executive produce Celebrity IOU: Joyride, and told ET about the moment Anstead met Zellweger, and felt the sparks. Jonathan told the entertainment network:
There was a scene where they were joking about being flirtatious, and Ant was like, via zoom, was putting on the flirty moves. It was just a joke, but apparently it worked!
The show Celebrity IOU: Joyride is a reality fixer-upper program where a famous participant dives into an automotive project and fixes up a clunker of a car in order to pass it on to someone special in their lives. Renee Zellweger is one of the celebrities featured in the upcoming season, alongside Danny Trejo, Tony Hawk, Octavia Spencer, and James Marsden. As you can imagine, the emotions run pretty high on a show like Celebrity IOU, because it really ends up being about one person helping out another who is in need. Anstead wouldn’t confirm that he cries on camera during the show, but I think that’s a safe bet. I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about the reveals that will happen on the show, and the way someone’s life can be improved through this simple gesture.
At an earlier point, Ant Anstead, whos is divorced from Christina Haackwas, opened up about the moment he met the Jerry Maguire standout, explaining to ET:
Sometimes things come to you at the right time, and actually the right time is often the most unexpected. There's absolutely no way it was something I expected, but there's something magical in that right?
Now we’ll see if the relationship lasts. If anything, Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel are role-model examples of a relationship forged on a reality program that can work. Maybe the Scotts can double date with Ant Anstead and Renee Zellweger, just to take the pressure of those first few dates off of them. In the meantime, you can tune into Celebrity IOU: Joyride on Discovery+ now, since it made its premiere on August 23.
