Traitors star Leanne Quigley, who after a thrilling climax won the hit BBC One show last month alongside Jake Brown, has opened up during an exclusive shoot with OK! at their North Wales home about the pain of her fiancée’s agonising cancer battle. The 29-year-old army veteran from Holywell, is engaged to fellow army recruit Sophie Jones – with whom she shares non-identical twins via IVF, Hudson and Harley, two. But their worlds collapsed last year when Sophie, a very healthy, active 32-year-old at the time, was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer.

Last May, Sophie discovered a tiny lump in her breast while she was in the shower. She initially thought it was just her ribs, but when it had grown markedly bigger two weeks later, was referred to hospital by her GP. After being told it was likely a benign cyst, test results confirmed a week later that Sophie in fact had an aggressive, fast-growing HER2-positive grade 3 breast cancer and she started chemotherapy just a week later.

Leanne says that the agonising two-week wait between diagnosis and results of the CT scans to see if Sophie’s cancer had spread, was her darkest moment. She admits, the whole thing felt like an “out of body experience.” “We didn’t know if she’d live,” the reality star tells us. “It was utterly terrifying. Sophie was saying every day, ‘I don’t want to die, Leanne… I want to see our babies grow up’”. “It was the fear of the unknown,” Sophie adds. “I didn’t know how bad it was, whether I’d go back for the results and hear, ‘You’ve got six months to live.’”

Often bed bound due to the debilitating effects of chemo, Sophie lost a lot of bonding time with her little ones – and felt “guilty” about everything her other half was dealing with. “Leanne would bring them in for a kiss, but when I was very bad they wouldn’t see me. I felt so guilty – but I knew I couldn’t do anything. Leanne was just amazing.”

“She had to build a relationship again with them.” explains Leanne. “But we both said, if we hadn’t had the twins, life would have been very dark. They kept us going.” Losing her hair, says Sophie, was particularly horrendous. “But I don’t want to hide. I want to be me and be proud of what I’ve come through. It’s slowly growing back. I’ve just got comfortable walking about without a wig at home.”

Originally meant to have six chemo sessions, Sophie only had five, as her body couldn’t tolerate the last, she admits. “I was in hospital and had several blood transfusions, I couldn’t walk at one point. I had a lumpectomy on Xmas Eve (what a beautiful present, it was also Leanne’s birthday!), to remove the tumour and lymph nodes under my arm.”

On 8 January, Sophie got the news they’d both been hoping for – she was given the all-clear. Shortly after our exclusive shoot, she began a daily two-week preventative radiotherapy course, and while it has made her feel “very tired” she is feeling positive about the future. Sophie was also tested for BRCA gene as her nan and aunt had it but luckily it came back negative, so she didn’t need to consider a preventative mastectomy. And on 5 March, she says delightedly, she can “ring the bell!! It’s going to be very emotional.”

For now, the couple say they are enjoying the simple things in their cosy family home, which is just a five-minute drive from the closest beach, half an hour from Snowdon and close to where Sophie grew up. “We love family time at home. Where we live is so idyllic,” says Leanne. “I mean, we tidy up 15 times a day, as these twins are wild! But it’s so nice to feel normal again. Life’s not been normal for a long time.” Sophie adds: “My family’s close by. And Leanne’s mum and little sister are moving down the road soon – so we might even get some date nights in!”

They can now get down to some serious wedding planning, too. Sophie admits she’d always wanted to propose – the plan was to do it on a family holiday to Portugal this year, but it all changed after her devastating diagnosis last year. “I’d no clue what was going to happen, so I thought, ‘Let’s do it now. I had my first chemo on a Friday, booked a hotel in the Lakes the day before, booked a little boat and popped the question there.”

“It turned the whole weekend around,” recalls Leanne, smiling. “We had wedding planning to look forward to, rather than just doom and gloom.” The big day, says Leanne, won’t be until Sophie’s hair has grown back – then they’ll book a date. “It will probably be next summer. I do not want a cold wedding!” laughs Sophie, adding that, because the twins are still small, and Leanne’s younger sister being disabled and unable to travel far, it will likely be local.

“We joked we could get married in The Traitors ’ castle in the Highlands! But like Sophie, I don’t really care as long as there’s family and good vibes. We’ll definitely invite the Traitors gang, and Claudia [Winkleman], of course! I made friends for life on that show. We don’t go a day without speaking. The WhatsApp group never stops. Soph even has great relationships with their partners.” She adds, “I’ll 100% wear a white dress! And the twins will probably be our ring-bearers. They’ll be three and a half by then, and so cute!”

Leanne carried the couple’s adorable non-identical twins through IVF – with Sophie’s eggs and donor sperm, explaining she was “very lucky” to fall pregnant at the first attempt. “I asked to have both embryos as we were told they were ‘low grade’ – I really didn’t think it would work. But we ended up pregnant with twins!” Both were ecstatic, but Sophie confesses she couldn’t stop laughing at their first scan. “I was like, ‘Leanne, this is all your fault!’ But we wouldn’t change things for the world. Being a twin mum is the best thing ever.”

The twins’ arrival on 9 January 2023, however, was nothing short of traumatic. Born prematurely at just 26 weeks, at a hospital while Sophie and Leanne were in Nottingham for Leanne’s mum’s birthday, Leanne admits, the whole thing is still a blur. “I told Sophie I was feeling these strange ‘tightenings’. Next thing I was told I was 4cm dilated and we were being prepped for an emergency C-section. I just went numb.”

Sophie admits, it was a terrifying time. “I remember crying, thinking, ‘Are they going to make it?’ The doctors were saying, ‘If they do survive the birth, they could have all these disabilities.’ We couldn’t take it in.” When they were born, weighing just 1lb 14oz each, both babies’ amniotic sacs were still intact. As soon as they burst, doctors began frantically working to save them, as they had various complications – from holes in the heart to bleeds on the brain.

“I didn’t initially recognise them as my babies,” confesses Leanne. “They looked like fully-formed humans but their eyes were fused shut, their fingers webbed. It was surreal.” Sophie explains: “They were put in a carrier bag in front of me, to keep them warm and keep moisture in. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ It’s meant to be the best moment of your life and it was like a nightmare.”

The twins were later taken to Birmingham for specialist care – and after three months, were allowed home, with oxygen tanks – but even then, the new parents had some terrifying moments. “Nighttimes were awful,” admits Leanne.

“I always worried they’d stop breathing. I bought my own sats monitor [to measure oxygen in the blood] and I’m convinced it saved their lives – one night at 3am the emergency alarm went off and one of the baby’s readings was dangerously low – at 65%. Thank goodness we heard the alarm and knew we needed to get his oxygen levels back up.”

Today, Hudson and Harley are thriving, with hospital check-ups every other month – although Hudson occasionally returns for oxygen treatment, as his lungs are particularly weak. “They’re amazing,” beams Leanne. “So fun and happy. They have no idea how hard they had to fight to survive.”

Incredibly, it hasn’t put the couple off expanding their brood. Leanne says she would “love a little girl” and intends to use some of her winnings from The Traitors to fund further IVF. “We’ll have a rest, first – maybe after our wedding. Meanwhile, we’ll get my eggs frozen – Sophie’s eggs aren’t viable after her cancer treatment, which put her into early menopause. We’re so lucky we used Sophie’s eggs two years ago.” And will they stop at a potential three? As Sophie nods firmly, Leanne confesses, “The thing is, I don’t like odd numbers – maybe we should have four…”

The couple are also adjusting to a slightly different reality post-Traitors, one which Leanne describes as “a little crazy”. “I never thought I could get on The Traitors, never mind win it!” laughs the bubbly blonde. Now getting used to selfie requests from excited fans, Sophie says she has become accustomed to being Leanne’s “official photographer”.

As for future telly plans, Leanne hasn’t ruled out doing another reality show, (“I would love to if I was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity!”), while Sophie confesses she is quite happy to stay home with the kids and cheer her fiancée on from the sidelines.

What they both agree on is that they have learned a very important lesson – life is short, and every moment should be cherished. “We’ve had so many moments when our lives were ripped apart – the last two years have been horrific, aside from The Traitors,” says Leanne. “So we want to make the most of every moment.”

“We’re focusing on enjoying our future together as a family now”, adds Sophie. “We feel unbreakable.”

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