Another week, another deliciously entertaining reality series following women who have way too much time and money on their hands.
Married To The Game is coming soon to Amazon Prime and it's a world that I know all too well as a former WAG.
The series follows the recent spate of wives and partners who have joined a top footballer. But amidst the excessive lifestyles, over-the-top hair, handbags and homes, they are all keen to point out that their world is not all it seems.
A clip lamenting the trials and tribulations of endless designer handbags and first class travel from the series has gone viral – and no wonder!
Taylor Ward, 26 — a gorgeous blonde glamor with 2.8 million Instagram followers and collaborations on everything from hair straighteners to nail sets — is catnip for the flying cameras.
In the artfully edited trailer, she can be seen breaking down in tears as her husband Riyad Mahrez, 32, tells her bluntly that he is moving teams from Manchester City to Saudi Arabia in a lucrative deal reportedly worth £750,000 per week. When she whines, “I’ll sit at home alone,” Riyad responds, “It’s part of the game, isn’t it.”
Taylor Ward breaks down in tears after her husband Riyad Mahrez tells her they're moving to Saudi Arabia in the Married To The Game trailer
Opening up to the 32-year-old former Manchester City player on new reality TV show Married To The Game, she said: “I'll sit at home alone”, to which Riyad replied: “That's part of it.” game innit'
Lizzie Cundy was married to Premier League star husband Jason for 16 years
Ms Ward and Mahrez celebrate Manchester City's Champions League win last year
On the one hand, this WAG is Team Riyad. When I was married to former Chelsea player Jason Cundy, I moved four times in five years. When my personal trainer rescheduled an appointment, I was informed about it sooner than some of the club transfers my ex-husband had coming my way.
In the first episode of the six-part show, out this Friday, February 23, we're in the spacious dressing room of Taylor's Cheshire mansion as she chats to fellow WAG Sara Gundogan, 29, who is with the former Manchester City player Ilkay is married to Gündogan. Taylor's 18-month-old daughter Mila is casually handed several designer handbags to play with, including a black quilted Chanel clutch and a Louis Vuitton number. When Taylor announces that she's always lived in Manchester and her “biggest fear is moving away”… Well, we know what's coming, don't we?
Footage of French-Algerian Riyadh's highly publicized move to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli in July 2023 will be used to announce his £30million transfer, alongside clips of Taylor, a former model, driving her six-figure Mercedes 4×4 G -class SUV drives through Country Lane in a posh car while he complained – without any irony – that the move was a “shock to everyone” and “the brutal thing about football”.
I'm sorry, Taylor, but when you're a joker you can't take the “poor me” route – you really have to adopt the “suck it up Buttercup” approach to life.
While you may have your top-notch interior design just the way you like it, the kids in the best schools, and finally discovered the perfect nail salon, a transfer deal can be completed in a matter of hours, and you'll need to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. That's part of the deal – and, let's face it, funding your lavish lifestyle.
I get it – you don’t know anyone in the new destination, let alone how to speak the local language. And Saudi Arabia is hardly known for its liberal women's rights.
In one scene, after modeling jewelry with her sister, Taylor cries about the impending move to Saudi Arabia and moans, “If I don't like it, I have no choice.”
I understand, Taylor! You've got the cars, the clothes, the Cheshire mansion, the private jet and the permanent tan… but when the bespoke silk carpet is pulled out from under you as you start a new life thousands of miles from home, things get bad Be damn lonely.
Especially if you take the “pity me” route.
Alongside Taylor and Sara, the first episode features Cat Harding, the fiancée of Arsenal player Jorginho (and mother of one of Jude Law's seven children).
Cat, 33, a former contestant on ITV's The Voice UK, decides to throw her own birthday party, complete with a white baby grand piano, carnival dancers and harpists. The (somewhat exhausted) organizer lists some of the last minute changes she insists on, including a balloon entry and 65kg of lemons.
We cringe when Cat asks her Brazilian boyfriend Jorginho if she should leave her ring finger free for a marriage proposal… The answer is a resounding “no”! (The couple eventually got engaged in December under a neon sign that read “Will you marry me?” in a heart of flowers.)
We also see Sara sighing into the camera when her husband Gündogan, 33, is transferred to Barcelona: “You just call and find out… it changes your life.”
She stays behind in Manchester and packs his suitcase, his framed shirts hanging on the wall behind her. And why does he want Sara to be flown out for him? His “two treatment beds” (and that's after he told viewers he only trusts his mother to pack for him.)
Arsenal's Jorginho is cheered on by his fiancée Cat Harding (pictured), who stars in the show
Married To The Game follows Everton centre-back James Tarkowski's wife Samantha on her journey to opening her own gym after gaining personal training qualifications
There is nothing worse for a footballer than a woman who moans and moans. This is difficult advice, but my wise words for people like Taylor, Cat, Sara and their generation are: changing clubs is the be-all and end-all of a footballer's life; It is never a given that the club jersey they wear this week will be the same one they will wear next season.
You must be wonderfully naive if you assume that your husband will start and end his career in the same zip code. I'm sorry to break it to you guys, but that's just not how the game works.
If you say yes, you also commit to his life as a footballer and everything that goes with it.
Look at Victoria Beckham. Despite being at the top of her career as a Spice Girl, she circumnavigated the planet to follow David. She learned her lesson early on after making the stupid mistake of staying in Blighty during David's transfer to Real Madrid in 2003, when his alleged four-month liaison with PA Rebecca Loos took place.
No wonder Victoria quickly gave up her life to follow him to Los Angeles in 2007.
That's why I cringed when, at the end of the first episode, Taylor said, wide-eyed, “I don't know when I'll see him next, which is pretty sad.”
Her husband had now settled in Saudi Arabia.
Look, a five-year contract in a Middle Eastern country isn't exactly a happy ending, is it? But watching the person you love play world-class football in a stadium with more than 70,000 fans chanting his name means that you routinely treat him like an attractive A-lister – that admiration is greater than that of one Rock stars because football is global. If he's doing well, he'll sprinkle a little stardust on you too. You feel special when the world rolls out the red carpet.
That's why being the wife of a football player is so appealing. Therefore, young girls see the lifestyle as accessible. They may not be Jennifer Anniston or Angelina Jolie – but could they be the next Coleen Rooney or Rebekah Vardy? With enough hair extensions, fake tan and cleavage – you bet. There are clubs all over the country with local bars and nightspots full of footballers. And the reality is, if you look good, it's very easy to get caught.
Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't downsides to being a WAG – and I'm proof of that.
There is a constant danger that other women will try to take your place in the bedroom. Never forget that, apart from the weekly games, footballers train in the morning, do a little physiotherapy and then have a lot of time. A young man with a healthy body and lots of energy who believes he is invincible is a green light for any woman with a pulse.
And to the women who have their heads in the clouds and think that staying in the comfort of their dreams in Blighty is the better option for them and the children, I have to say this: Big mistake.
I know all too well the pitfalls of the WAG world. Jason and I broke up when I found out he was dating a younger woman in 2010. We had been married for 16 years and had two sons, then 10 and 16 years old. But despite a lifetime of vigilance, I couldn't prevent it.
I know a WAG who said to her significant other when he was transferred abroad: “I'm happy in Surrey, I'm not leaving.” It wasn't wise to choose Cobham over changing clubs. Source surprise: They broke up two months later. It is the job of a football player's wife to support her husband. You may be married to him, but his first love will always be the game.
People like Taylor need to focus on her husband's happiness. Believe me, if he is happy, you will be too.
So my advice would be: WAGs, if he gets transferred to another country, wipe away the tears, stop whining and move on. This is the life he – and you – chose.
As Samantha tells Brick
- The documentary series “Married to The Game” premieres Friday, February 23rd on Prime Video.