Facts: More from Marko Lehtosalo this spring
Marko Lehtosalo is also current in SVT’s “Bäst i test”, where he is part of the fixed panel this spring. He is also working on new music after touring extensively in 2022.
His mother has always been a big part of Marko Lehtosalos’ life and career. Irma Lehtosalo has been mentioned in summer programs and in her son’s autobiography.
Now she appears as a TV star in the new reality series “Marko and Irma”, which premieres on TV4 on January 12. In the program, Marko Lehtosalo helps his mother build a new house.
— The background is that I bought a house for her in Ingarö twelve years ago. But then we discovered that the house was infested with mold, so it started to run in the nose and itch in the eyes, says Marko Lehtosalo.
The house had to be demolished and a new one built. The reality concept assumes that mother Irma has very clear ideas about what the house should look like and how it should be decorated. Son Marko tries to help with an eye on the budget and the craftsmen, as well as a more modern view of interior design.
Marko Lehtosalo helps his mother build a new house in “Marko and Irma” on TV4 this spring. Archive image.
But Irma says what she thinks. Marko Lehtosalo discovered that when he started including her in videos he posted on Youtube.
— Then we noticed that she has it in her. She is quite unfiltered and it works very well.
It could be a new TV star we see being born, Marko Lehtosalo suspects. She seems to “walk through the window”.
— When I post stuff with her on my Instagram account, I notice that it’s sticking out. People like her because she has something that many want, but which they don’t dare to have, like the lack of filter. For better or worse.
In recent years, Marko Lehtosalo has been open about his difficult childhood, growing up in a suburb of Stockholm without a father and with abuse and alcohol in the home. He says that it was his mother who encouraged him to tell.
Their relationship has grown stronger in recent years.
— It has always been good, really. The mother has been both my mother and my father, because I have grown up without a father. I have never felt that I would give up on her, but my thought was that it would be good at some point and it was, he says.
TT: Can there be more programs with your mother and you?
— It would be fun, but I think the mother is quite tired now. I tricked her into this and said we would only film twice a week, but it turned out to be much more, says Marko Lehtosalo and laughs. So if there is talk of a new season, I can’t mention it yet. It will have to wait.