Georgia Toffolo and her husband, James Watt, fled their French family holiday mere hours before ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires hit and forced thousands to evacuate.
More than 250,000 people in southwestern France and central Spain – including over 140,000 in France’s Gironde and Landes region – have had to flee their homes due to the raging forest fires that broke out on Tuesday.
Spain has declared a national emergency after capital city Madrid was badly affected by the ‘out of control’ flames, while tourist spot Cap Ferret, west of Bordeaux, was evacuated in its entirety, with hundreds of holidaymakers escaping by boat.
Firefighters are continuing to tackle what’s been described as an ‘XXL fire’ in the Gironde region after 10,000 hectares (almost 25,000 acres) had been consumed.
Shortly before what foreign minister Éléonore Caroit called a ‘tragedy’ struck, Made in Chelsea star Georgia, 31, had been enjoying a getaway with former Brewdog CEO James, 44, and his kids.
Taking to her Instagram Story this weekend, the influencer expressed how ‘lucky’ they are to have left when they did, recalling how they slept at the airport overnight.
She began: ‘Hello everyone, I’ve been a little bit quiet on here, and I just wanted to explain. I’m just so praying that everyone is OK, but to cut a long story short, we were on holiday in Cap Ferret.
‘And whenever I’ve got the children with me, I don’t post about where we are, and I post out of time.
‘I couldn’t say, but we were just watching the news, and just so you can understand, we were on holiday there for a week, and we were at lunch with friends on Thursday.
‘We obviously knew about the fire, but at that point, it was quite far away, and our friends were like, “God, it’s really getting bad,” and they live there, so they were a bit more plugged in than us.’
Following their friends’ input, the couple decided it was best to cut their trip a day short, realising that the situation could change ‘very quickly’.
‘We were meant to be leaving on Friday anyway to fly up here; we were dropping the kids, and we’re in Iceland now,’ Georgia continued.
‘But James just said to me on Thursday, we had four children with us; he was just like, “I don’t like it.” And we could smell stuff, and there was little bits of ash falling.
‘We got everyone packed up, and we left by boat because the road was closed on Thursday and stayed at the airport on Thursday night, and our flights were already booked early on Friday morning.’
She described the developments as ‘quite distressing’, adding that they fortunately got out before the ‘big evacuation in the early hours of that morning’.
‘It’s so awful. So many firefighters have been injured; it’s just a really awful situation. It was just even when we were sat at lunch, it was growing in velocity.’
Georgia concluded by wishing for everyone’s safety and praising the authorities and first responders.
The I’m A Celebrity star married James last March in Scotland, having got engaged in 2024 following a year of dating.
Entrepreneur James, whose net worth reportedly exceeds £400million, was previously married to illustrator Johanna Basford from 2013 to 2020, and they share two daughters.
He and Georgia frequently share insights into their relationship online with videos that have a tendency to elicit debate and backlash.
Recently, James mocked his wife as part of a TikTok trend, quipping that she ‘calls it a joint bank account despite never having put a penny in it’, which she laughed at and admitted: ‘That’s so true.’
And, in the past, they’ve sparked discussions by revealing they hold regular relationship performance reviews, telling followers: ‘People might think it’s a bit weird, but we think it’s really normal.’
As for James specifically, a year ago, he enraged the internet with his ‘work-life balance’ remarks, saying he, instead, believes in ‘work-life integration’ because ‘when you find work that brings you meaning, you don’t want to stop’.
He swiftly removed his post, later revealing he received death threats from those who disagreed with his viral opinions.
Speaking afterwards to The National, he shared: ‘It’s not to say that people have to adopt my personal philosophy on work-life integration.
‘But since when did it become mainstream to hurl vile abuse at somebody sharing their approach to hard work?’
