Clair and James Buckley look back: 'Before we met, I had never seen The Inbetweeners'

Dagenham-born James Buckley landed his breakthrough role as naughty suburban schoolboy Jay in The Inbetweeners. After the success of the show, Buckley starred in comedies such as Zapped and White Gold, but forged a new career online – as one of the most prolific celebrities on the personalized messaging platform Cameo ; a player on the live streaming site Twitch; and now documents his life with his wife, Clair, a former model and actor, on YouTube, as well as their two sons, Harrison and Jude. Their book At Home With the Buckleys is out September 29.

This was taken while my best men were giving their speech at our wedding. I look scared, but not because I was worried they would say something shocking about me - I played my life safe and didn't have many embarrassing situations. It was more because I found the whole thing stressful. I'm a massive introvert, so throwing a wedding - throwing a big party - was pretty overwhelming.

My best men did a version of She's Electric from Oasis and changed the words so that they were about Clair. I don't remember much of the day. I know I made a speech, which may have lasted too long. It was how brilliant I am, how lucky Clair is – but the truth is, I actually hate myself. I don't know if everyone got the joke. And I know I was wearing a kilt. I was marrying a Scotswoman in Scotland, so I thought it was appropriate to put on the kilt. I still put on pants. It was in November.

Our love story began on Twitter. I had been single for a while before we met. A friend of mine had just died and I felt quite confused about the world. Then Clair messaged me and we chatted – she lived in Scotland and I was in London but I had a DJ gig in Liverpool so we decided to meet there for a drink. I didn't expect to be completely blown away when I saw her. We had such a great time together; she made me laugh and we talked about the Beatles. Before I left, I said, "Why don't you come back with me?" So she did, and we've been living together ever since.

The novelty of what I do doesn't escape me. It was never intended to make our relationship a work, but it's good that it happened like that. It relieves me financially: I don't have to do a TV show or anything I'm not 100% into.

Our YouTube channel has really taken off during confinement. Because I was in The Inbetweeners, which was such a hit, viewers were curious about what my life might be like. What they found was far from a celebrity existence: we come from traditional working-class backgrounds and don't take anything too seriously. People see themselves in us. Once the lockdown is over, I thought our audience would be looking for more exciting content, but it turns out they just want to see us sitting on the couch freaking out!

Now I can make money on my own terms with someone I really enjoy spending time with which is great because from the start I knew I wanted to spend the most possible time with this person.

I don't know what we'll do next, but I've always said to Clair: if you ever want to end me, It's fine, I wouldn't argue with you. I would just be grateful and thank you for the time we spent.

I'm a bit better at handling the limelight than James but I don't like it. attention, so when this was taken, I thought, “Oh my God! Why are they singing?!" I really liked my dress, though. It had pockets, which was great because we already had Harrison, who had one at the time, and he was with us that day. I had a pacifier in one pocket and a small packet of baby snacks in the other Danny Dyer's girlfriend Jo caught the...