BBC Morning Live co-hosts Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones slipped out of the National Television Awards afterparty together, following a year of denying rumours of an off-screen romance.
The pair made a beeline for the exit just before staff kicked out the remaining stars after 1am.
Skelton, 43, was seen gathering the skirts of her £750 strapless Solace London gown as they left the exclusive Amex Lounge at the O2 Arena side by side.
Jones, 48, kept his head down in an apparent attempt to avoid drawing attention to their joint departure.
Earlier in the evening, the couple had let their guard down, partying alongside television executives, the cast of last year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, former Love Island contestants, and Joey Essex.
Onlookers at the star-studded party noted that Skelton and Jones chatted intimately.
"Helen and Gethin were the talk of the town; they were all over each other, there was no hiding it," one onlooker said.
"It was like they couldn't be apart. He would move and then she would, always looking where the other was and always within three metres of the other's orbit."
When approached by a reporter at the event, the usually smiley and charming Jones became visibly cagey and slightly uncomfortable.
He refused to discuss any romance with Skelton, while she laughed the questions off. They left the building together minutes later.
A source close to the couple inside the BBC said: "Gethin is adamant about denying the rumours whereas Helen thinks they should just let it all come out."
Morning Live partnership
The picture of Skelton and Jones leaving the venue is the first time they have been captured showing anything beyond friendship since Skelton joined Morning Live in 2023.
The BBC began searching for two permanent presenters for its new breakfast show in 2020, hoping to find the next Richard and Judy.
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who launched ITV's This Morning in 1988 and defined morning lifestyle television for a generation, were exactly the type of popular married couple BBC bosses wanted to win a ratings war with their ITV rivals.
Television executives agreed that Skelton and Jones had enough in common to make the show a success, despite not being a couple.
Both presenters were already known to a large section of the key audience, having hosted Blue Peter and taken part in Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday nights.
Eighteen months later, Daily Mail reporter Katie Hind revealed rumours that the pair were enjoying more than an on-screen partnership.
One source stated the pair were "very happy together".
A week prior to that report, Skelton and Jones were spotted leaving a spa near Jones's home in Cheshire, 110 miles away from Skelton's residence in Cumbria.
Onlookers at the spa reported that they were "all over each other", and Skelton, a mother of three, was seen leaving the venue with a suitcase.
They had also been seen leaving the BBC headquarters in Salford together on a motorbike, heading for breakfast in Manchester city centre after filming Morning Live.
Previous relationships
Both Skelton and Jones have experienced high-profile relationship breakdowns in the past.
Cumbria-born Skelton was devastated when her husband of eight years, rugby player Richie Myler, left her in April 2022.
The split occurred just four months after Skelton gave birth to their third child, Elsie.
Myler quickly moved on with Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of Andrew Thirkill, who is the president of Leeds Rhinos, the club Myler played for between 2017 and 2023.
Skelton, a former Radio 5 Live host, announced on Instagram at the time that Myler had "left the family home".
Cardiff-born Jones struggled for several years to recover from his 2011 split from Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins.
Sources have been waiting for the pair to go public with their relationship and tell viewers about their romance since rumours emerged over a year ago.
Other television couples
KissFM co-hosts Olivia Attwood and Pete Wicks also attended the event but avoided the press at both the ceremony and the afterparty.
The reality television stars have not hidden their relationship but appeared unready to answer difficult questions about their romance.
Their relationship is believed to have begun less than two months after Attwood split from footballer Bradley Dack.
Instead, the pair were happy to be affectionate for the cameras without taking questions.
Elsewhere at the party, 36-year-old The Only Way Is Essex star Joey Essex stalked around the room before finding Priya Jaswal, a 25-year-old who recently left the Love Island villa.
Jaswal has already split from her on-screen partner, Aidan Murphy.
"She spent the first half of the afterparty looking around for Aidan and the second half on the sofa with Joey Essex," an onlooker said.
BBC bosses would likely appreciate a similar dynamic on their Morning Live sofa.
Afterparty food and drink
The National Television Awards afterparty was a boozy affair, with guests drinking wine and beer from a free bar.
The event offered a sparse food selection, providing guests with only mini pulled-pork burgers or churros to eat.
While many attendees stayed to indulge, former This Morning host Holly Willoughby and her successor Cat Deeley scurried away immediately after the ceremony concluded.
