Footballers' Wives cast uncovered 14 years on from death sex, burned boobs and baby swaps

They don’t make TV shows like they used to, especially when it came to outrageous noughties drama Footballers’ Wives.

From orgies and cocaine sniffing to swapped babies and murder, no subject was off limits for the franchise that followed the exploits of fictional Premier League club Earls Park FC.

Like the time evil WAG Tanya Turner decided to ‘sh*g to death’ team manager Frank Laslett using a concoction of Viagra, alcohol and cocaine; or when bride-to-be Chardonnay Lane’s boobs caught fire on her hen do.

Sadly, the cult show was scrapped in 2006 after four series – but the memories stayed with us.

And here’s what became of your favourite stars of the ridiculously fabulous programme…

Zoe Lucker (Tanya Turner)

Zoe Lucker played Jason Turner’s scary wife Tanya (Image: Unknown)

Ruthless, cold and calculating, head WAG Tanya was fuelled by cocaine and a furious desire to hang on to her philandering husband Jase.

She left the club’s chairman, Frank Laslett (John Forgeham), for dead after a savage attack; manipulated and bedded Jason’s agent Hazel Bailey (Alison Newman) before marrying Frank and bonking him to death.

Tanya eventually graduated to ITV prison drama Bad Girls after being jailed for cocaine possession, while actress Zoe, 45, also starred in Strictly Come Dancing, EastEnders and Waterloo Road before joining Hollyoaks as Reenie McQueen.

Tanya and Hazel enjoyed a night of passion

But she quit in 2016 to spend more time with daughter Lily, 11, and her husband James Herbert and also learned she was suffering from a previously undiagnosed birth defect called ‘sacralisation’, meaning her spine isn’t fused together correctly.

“I’ve had backache for years,” she previously told The Mirror, revealing her daughter will also need to be tested for the condition which has no cure.

“The osteopath sent me for a CT scan and the results showed there were pages of things wrong with me. I was really depressed. Some mornings I take painkillers as soon as I get up, it can be debilitating, but luckily it’s never stopped me working.”

Zoe Lucker as Reenie McQueen in Hollyoaks in 2015 (Image: Channel 4)

As for her Footballers’ Wives days, the cringing star admits she can’t bring herself to watch her character’s x-rated antics.

“I can’t believe I did some of those sex scenes – I’d never do that now. I was semi-naked most of the time!” she added.

“Oh my word, there was a plane scene so explicit it was like porn – I was having champagne poured all over my t*ts! I had to snort Lucozade powder as fake cocaine.

“I’m very grateful for the role, but afterwards I took myself out of the limelight for a while. I did some theatre in New Zealand and I did some volunteer work in Zambia. I needed to take a step back. I’m very happy not to have that level of fame now.”

Cristian Solimeno (Jason Turner)

Jason and his agent Hazel plotted their way into trouble (Image: Shed)

Given up for adoption by his biological parents, Jason was like a bull in a china shop, hurtling from affair to affair in between tormenting talon-clawed wife Tanya.

And clean-living Cristian – who didn’t drink, smoke or eat red meat – had to give up his healthy ways to properly portray the destructive ageing footballer.

He said at the time: “I’ve started drinking again, and puffing on big cigars… that’s Jason, he spirals out of control physically. 

Cristian pictured at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2018 (Image: Brian Anderson/REX/Shutterstock)

“Usually I’m an exercise fanatic and I rely on that as a coping mechanism, but I injured myself training for this.

“Jason’s always out drinking and I couldn’t even remember what it was like to be drunk. I hadn’t touched a drop for like, two years.”

After plunging to his death at the hands of Chardonnay at the end of series two, Cristian, 44, starred in Wire in the Blood and Spooks before landing a role as Ray McCormick in Hollyoaks.

He also wrote and directed psychological thriller The Glass Man starring Neve Campbell.

Susie Amy (Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe)

Chardonnay refused to quit glamour modelling for husband Kyle (Image: ITV)

Unlikely feminist Chardonnay refused to quit working as a glamour model just because she was marrying footballer Kyle (Gary Lucy).

But that all changed when she accidentally burned her boobs on her hen do.

There was more high drama when Jason knocked up Kyle’s mum Jackie Pascoe (Gillian Taylforth) and Chardonnay and Kyle decided to pass the kid off as their own.

Jason later tried to claim little Paddy but changed his mind after it emerged the tot was an hemaphrodite. A furious Chardonnay murdered Jason then died from guilt-induced anorexia.

Susie recently became a mum for the first time (Image: Instagram)

Actress Susie, 38, later reunited with long-time friend Gary on Hollyoaks in 2018 with the pair playing exes Luke and Scarlett Morgan.

And when Susie announced the birth of her first child, daughter Noah, with boyfriend Raphael Bar last year, Gary was cracking the gags, joking: “F**k! Did we ? No ? S**t ?!!!”

Gary Lucy (Kyle Pascoe)

Gary played Chardonnay’s husband Kyle (Image: Publicity Picture)

Just 21 when he joined the show, for Gary Footballers’ Wives was the time of his life.

“I was living the dream at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he recently told The Sun while teasing plans for a possible reunion.

“There has been loads of talk about it but would I go back? I’d absolutely love to revisit that at some point but who knows what the future brings.”

Gary Lucy later joined the cast of EastEnders

Not that he needs the work. The 38 year old has a regular role as Luke Morgan in Hollyoaks and played DC Will Fletcher in The Bill from 2005 to 2010 before starring in hit series BBC The Missing and EastEnders as Danny Pennant.

In 2014 he married long-term girlfriend Natasha Grey and they welcomed children India Jasmine, Sadie, Elvis and Theodore before splitting in 2018.

Katherine Monaghan (Donna Walmsley)

Donna was obsessed with getting her adopted baby back (Image: ITV)

Her husband Ian was an up-and-coming star (Image: Carlton TV)

Donna made her first appearance when husband Ian joined the team as a promising young upstart – but she was more concerned with finding the son her parents had forced her to put up for adoption when she was a teenager.

Their eight-year-old daughter Holly was kidnapped at the end of series one, while Donna’s little sister ended up having an affair with bad boy Jason.

In 2011 actress Katherine, 39, joined the cast of British crime drama Vera and has also starred in BBC dramas 55 Degrees North and Judge John Deed.

She has also appeared in several plays at London’s Theatre 503 and Live Theatre Company in her native Newcastle.

Ben Price (Conrad Gates)

Conrad did what he wanted with who he wanted

Conrad was the cut-throat captain of Earls Park who embarked on an affair with feisty Tanya. But it all went wrong when both Tanya and his wife Amber got knocked up at the same time – although Conrad didn’t realise Tanya was actually pregnant by Frank.

After seeing Frank off with a sex fest, Tanya swapped hers and Amber’s babies at birth to cover her tracks, but tragedy struck when Amber’s ‘son’ got smothered to death by the pet dog and the whole plot was blown wide open.

Ben has played Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street on and off since 2009

Actor Ben left after just two series and starred in Casualty and The Tudors before joining Coronation Street as Nick Tilsley in 2009.

He married wife Alexandra Wheeler in 2005 and they have children Paloma and Max – who he briefly quit Corrie to care for in 2017.

He told the Daily Star: “I only left to go back to my kids, so I took them to school and made packed lunches and became a dad and didn’t think about Nick Tilsley or the street.”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk