How did Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo meet? A look at the MP’s relationship timeline

Embracing her after he left ITV’s I’m A Celebrity jungle and walking through Chelsea Flower Show hand-in-hand are just some of the public appearances that the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo have had during their relationship, since footage was leaked showing the couple not only breaking Covid-19 rules but also exposing their extramarital affair.

The CCTV pictures released in June 2021 forced Matt Hancock to resign from his post that he had held for three years, and put pressure on the couple’s respective marriages.

Following the scandal, Matt and Gina kept a predominantly low profile before the MP started to ‘rebrand’ by appearing on Steve Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast, entering the I’m A Celebrity jungle where he came third, and releasing his own book about the pandemic.

While the ‘steamy scene’ may have looked like a fleeting romance, Matt and Gina have a long history after first meeting at university - PeopleWorld takes a look at their relationship timeline and an in-depth look at Gina’s background.

In 1995, Gina and Matt first crossed paths when they both worked on the student radio at Oxford University, even though they both studied the same course until 1998 - somewhat ironically, Mr. Hancock studied PPE at Oxford, namely politics, philosophy and ethics.

Despite working for the same station, it has been reported that Gina was ‘out of Matt’s league’ as “He had a very slight presence, not someone you would mark out as destined for greatness. Whereas Gina was very well-known and high-profile and memorable.”

Gina and Matt’s paths may have crossed but there was radio silence in terms of a romance between the pair, as shortly after starting studies at Oxford, Mr. Hancock also met Martha Hoyer Millar, who he went on to marry.

As post-graduates, Matt and Gina went separate ways in their careers but reportedly remained friends; with the former becoming an economist at the Bank of England before entering politics as an economic advisor to George Osbourne in 2005 and rising through the ranks, while the latter got a job as communications manager for Oliver Bonas and was a director at Luther Pendragon.

It must be noted that Oliver Bonas was founded by Gina’s now ex-husband Oliver Tress, who went on to have three children together after marrying in 2009.

Three years prior, Mr. Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, the granddaughter of Frederick Millar, a former British ambassador for West Germany and great-granddaughter of the co-owner of newspapers The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and Daily Telegraph.

Matt and Gina’s paths seemingly did not cross again until 2021 when the West Suffolk MP appointed Ms. Coladangelo as an unpaid advisor at the Department of Health and Social Care for six months.

While Mr. Hancock was connected to The Times through his ex-wife’s familial connections, it was this newspaper that reported that there was no public record for Ms. Coladangelo’s initial appointment, before she was appointed to the DHSC board for £15,000 a year.

A couple of months later, the Oxford graduates’ affair, nee ‘steamy clinch’ was exposed to public backlash.

Former colleagues of Matt Hancock described at the time that Gina ‘possessed the confidence you see in ex-public schoolboys’ and therefore were ‘shocked but not surprised’ at the outcome.

On the contrary, friends of Gina Coladangelo have described her as ‘composed’, ‘elegant’ and hardly one to ‘make a scene’. Gina Coladangelo is the daughter of a florist and a pharmaceutical consultancy CEO for Rephine, while her younger brother Roberto is an executive director at Partnering Health.

Ms. Coladangelo’s path to the health department may have been foreshadowed as her Italian CEO father also held a position as a managing director of an NHS hospital and was a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

Following the CCTV footage leaking and the couple quietly separating from their respective partners, it was debated whether they had moved in together.

As of November 2022, it was understood that they were not living in the same home, but more recently questions have been asked about their living arrangements as Gordon Ramsay bought Gina’s old family home in London.

Is Gina Coladangelo behind Matt’s ‘rebrand’?

In the wake of their ‘steamy clinch’, Matt Hancock has worked hard to try to change his image in terms of making TV appearances and auctioning off a signed Newcastle United shirt, but it left many people wondering - is Gina Coladangelo the mastermind behind it all?

Aforementioned, Gina worked as a communications manager for Oliver Bonas and was a confident and well-known media presence from her Oxford University radio days, making her a professional when dealing with the press.

Mr. Hancock has since created his own TV production company, potentially to advance his television career, and has been active on social media - even creating TikToks.

They say that behind every ‘great’ man (I use this term allusively) there is a ‘great’ woman, so maybe this is the case for Gina and Matt...