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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask your tenuous claims to fame?

806 replies

GetAGripNigel · 11/01/2026 00:15

The more tenuous the better.

I don’t want any of your “My mum used to clean for a famous pop star” because that turns into pages of tiresome questions and “Oh go on tell us who it is/give us a clue/no I can’t sorry”

I want such tenuous connections that nobody will bother asking follow up questions.

I’ll start.

My dog was Mr Tumble’s dog’s mum.

OP posts:
Gaiad · 11/01/2026 22:28

Cousin is dating a well known footballer. Who is extremely nice and unbelievably kind to the kids who come up to him. Would praise him for his kindness and generosity but don’t want to have to name change.

Delphiniumandlupins · 11/01/2026 22:25

miserablestepmum · 11/01/2026 19:45

Carol Vorderman sent me champagne to hospital when I was in having my son

That is not a tenuous link, unless it was because your aunt's neighbour was CV's cleaner.

Murphs1 · 11/01/2026 22:21

Nigella Lawson wished me happy birthday on a social media platform when I shared a picture of a birthday cake made for me using her recipe. Absolutely made my day! 🥰

Jerseygirl2023 · 11/01/2026 22:16

I once commented on a post by the actor Morven Christie. It was not in the least bit argumentative, in fact I was agreeing with her. She sent me a really rude response back. It was very odd.

SlyFix · 11/01/2026 22:09

An Olympic athlete’s mother got me into (very mild) trouble

Arlanymor · 11/01/2026 22:08

I met Daniel Beddingfield the day before 'Gotta Get Through This' went to number one. It had been played on Kiss all week (and I was cool then folks) and I met my best mate for a meal at Pizza Express but realised I forgot to get money out (no contactless or chip and pin in those days!) so slipped out during pudding to get some loot from the ATM. He was right behind me humming it. And when I walked away from the ATM he kind of smiled at me and I said: "I am sure you'll be Number One tomorrow." He gave me a hug (erm ok) and said: "Thanks!!!!" Wouldn't have known him from a bar of soap otherwise. I told my friend when I got back to the restaurant who said: "Ewww, tell him go away!"

pestowithwalnuts · 11/01/2026 22:06

I thought my only contact with fame Miriam Margoyles but having had a think.....
I collided with Lionel Ritchie getting out of a lift in a hotel in Jersey.
Lee Ingelby kept staring at me in a pub in Highgate.
Family tree rumour is that we are related to Geoff Hurst.

Frugalfashionista87 · 11/01/2026 22:03

Russell Brand’s dad Ronnie Brand was chatting me up in Kentish Town pub in 2009, that same year Noel fielding chatted me up at a ATM in Camden Town 😆

Arlanymor · 11/01/2026 22:03

WearyAuldWumman · 11/01/2026 21:45

I'm still trying to figure where the GRJ came from. Perhaps DH confused Griff and Grant? Who knows.

I used to think Bill Oddie and David Bellamy were there same person until I was about 15. Beards and the double 'l'?!

ladyrushford · 11/01/2026 22:02

My mum was given a kitten from the housekeeper of Francis Shan Kyd (Princess of Diana’s mother). I believe it was a very rare breed but they put it in a box on a train from the Highlands and when my father collected it it was deeply traumatised. It disappeared after a few months 😢

WearyAuldWumman · 11/01/2026 22:01

The father of the bloke who played Taggart's first side-kick was the Prof who tapped me on the head and made me a Master of Honours. His sister was a school colleague for a while and I saw him once at a school show.

Ursulla42 · 11/01/2026 21:55

George Harrison was in the audience at a play I was in

Sealhaver · 11/01/2026 21:54

I threw up on Princess Diana…I also may have had a wee on her, but was quite small and blameless (she was my nursery school teacher in the months just prior to the wedding)!

HazelOP1972 · 11/01/2026 21:52

I've met Olly Murs and had hugs from him.
Also sat on Bobby G's knee in 1984 when I met the original Bucks Fizz lol and Bob Geldof knows my FIL

lilacleopards · 11/01/2026 21:48

I live next door to a very famous UK rapper… been very popular lately after a certain TV show.

JahanaraBegum · 11/01/2026 21:45

Oh I also once sat next to Dylan Moran in a pub in Edinburgh. He seemed annoyed.

WearyAuldWumman · 11/01/2026 21:45

Arlanymor · 11/01/2026 21:42

Great story! I bet GRJ would have been thrilled (and bemused) to think that he caused a dither! (He rents out a cottage in Pembs these days and wrote a fab book called Insufficiently Welsh - lots of respect for that chap).

I'm still trying to figure where the GRJ came from. Perhaps DH confused Griff and Grant? Who knows.

JahanaraBegum · 11/01/2026 21:45

I once walked past Damon Albarn in a theatre (narrow backstage corridor) and didn't recognise him (told later it was him).

Arlanymor · 11/01/2026 21:42

WearyAuldWumman · 11/01/2026 21:35

Some years ago, I was getting my hair done in Edinburgh.

DH was having a drink at the Royal Scots Club. He phoned me to say that the girls working at the club were all in a dither because 'that Griff Rhys Jones is here'.

Okay. It was Festival time, so no surprise that GRJ was there...but I couldn't understand young women going into a dither about him.

Finished getting my hair done and met DH at the club for lunch. I spoke to one of the women who worked there. It was Hugh Grant who had been at the club.

Great story! I bet GRJ would have been thrilled (and bemused) to think that he caused a dither! (He rents out a cottage in Pembs these days and wrote a fab book called Insufficiently Welsh - lots of respect for that chap).

CatAndHisKit · 11/01/2026 21:40

I had a fling with a (at that time famous) World Champ in figure skating.

WearyAuldWumman · 11/01/2026 21:35

Some years ago, I was getting my hair done in Edinburgh.

DH was having a drink at the Royal Scots Club. He phoned me to say that the girls working at the club were all in a dither because 'that Griff Rhys Jones is here'.

Okay. It was Festival time, so no surprise that GRJ was there...but I couldn't understand young women going into a dither about him.

Finished getting my hair done and met DH at the club for lunch. I spoke to one of the women who worked there. It was Hugh Grant who had been at the club.

Livelifeandloveit · 11/01/2026 21:34

My daughter-in-law was an extra in Shameless

Coffeeishot · 11/01/2026 21:30

harriethoyle · 11/01/2026 20:43

I was very stressed at Waterloo with a huge bankers box of files and couldn’t get the taxi door open. Asked a passing couple to assist. It was only once I (and box) were in taxi that I realised it was Anthea Turner and Grant Thingummy whose name temporarily escapes me…

Bovey?

Shedeboodinia · 11/01/2026 21:22

BettyButterBum · 11/01/2026 11:30

I went in to Mungo Jerrys house about 50 years ago. He had a pond with fish in his entrance hall!

Oh this reminds me of another one of mine. I interned at a recording studios when I was 16 and worked on the 90s remix of In the Summer Time. Well I say 'worked on' but actually I was asked to clean the mixing desk while the engineers worked on the recording. There were soo many buttons and knobs to individually clean. Arseholes.

MoonWoman69 · 11/01/2026 21:02

I have a few too, tenuous or not!

Once walked past Goldie Lookin Chain in Leeds city centre. I only recognised them as Maggot had recently been in a reality show on TV.

Met the lead singer of Zigue Zigue Sputnik on his way to the loo during a break in the gig they were doing, in the music venue we used to go to regularly. They were one of the biggest names they'd had. It was usually pretty decent tribute bands!

One of my doctors is the mum of two local famous athlete brothers.

The cast of Emmerdale filmed in the studios opposite our local pub back in the mid to late 90s. Had some good nights with them in the pub.

My husband appeared in Emmerdale as a fork lift driver.

Jeff Hordley (Cain Dingle) and Emma Atkins (Charity Dingle) shared a house on our old street. He once moved my husbands Harley, as Emma had blocked me in at the front and the bike was up to the back of my car! He then guided me out of my parking spot. He's a lovely fella.

In the late 80s, I was in a rush and ran out of Leeds train station, as a bloke with a suitcase was walking in. I thought I recognised him as one of my neighbours at the time, so I stopped, asked him how he was, that it was lovely to see him, but I was late so couldn't stop to chat. It was only when I got along the road I realised it was actually James Bolam of The Likely Lads fame! How I'd got it in my mind he was my neighbour, I have no idea. But he was very polite and lovely! Bet he wondered who the hell I was! 🤣

My mum used to regularly chat on the train home from Leeds with Josh the paramedic from Casualty. She said he was so down to earth.

I'm loving this thread, thank you OP!