Mark Wright finally puts THOSE marriage rumours to bed and reveals babies with wife Michelle Keegan are on the cards
IN an attempt to reveal just how much he has changed since becoming a married man, Mark Wright is unbuttoning his shirt to show off a very toned but rather hairy chest.
“I don’t shave it any more,” he says proudly.
“I mean, I’ll shave it every now and again if I’m going on holiday, but I don’t do it regularly. I don’t do fake tan, I don’t spend ages in the bathroom and with my hair, it’s just wash and go.
“I’m definitely not any way near as vain as I used to be because it’s not important to me any more,” Mark, 30, admits
with a big grin on his face.
“I’m in love with my wife.”
His wife is, of course, former Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan, 29.
The pair met on holiday in Dubai in 2012, moved into their own house in Essex in 2014, and were married a year later in a lavish TOWIE-meets-Corrie wedding at St Mary’s Church followed by a reception at Hengrave Hall in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
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Life, it seems, would be just perfect if it weren’t for all those pesky rumours about their marriage that have dogged them over the past year.
According to newspaper reports, the couple’s romance has been under strain because of Mark’s jealousy over Michelle’s handsome co-stars, including fellow Our Girl actor (and Perrie Edwards’ ex) Luke Pasqualino.
Busy work schedules have also been blamed – since quitting the cobbles, Michelle has starred in Ordinary Lies, Our Girl and Tina And Bobby,
while Mark fronts ITV2’s Take Me Out: The Gossip, which returns next week.
Plus, Michelle was spotted filming in South Africa without her £20,000 square-cut diamond engagement ring.
The frustration Mark feels about the gossip is clear from his furrowed brow.
“People won’t stop saying we are splitting up until Michelle gets pregnant. We do want to have kids but in our own time, not just yet.
“The rumours started when we were on honeymoon. We just ignore it now. I saw one story about us never seeing each other when I was lying in bed with Michelle in South Africa!
“It was my idea not to take her ring with her because it’s something that could never be replaced. I don’t care about the cost, it’s the emotional value. But we’re rock solid.”
So is it true he gets upset by her sex scenes with the likes of hunky actor Lorne MacFadyen in Tina And Bobby?
Mark shakes his head: “I actually give her tips and say things like: ‘Why didn’t you close your eyes – that would look more real.’ I know that it’s just acting and there are 50 people in a room telling them to do this and do that and it’s not at all sexy.”
It’s taken him a while to get this chilled out, though. Mark recalls an evening when the pair started dating.
They were sitting watching Corrie when a snogging scene between her character Tina McIntyre and Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) came on. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find that awkward, it just felt really weird. But now I’m completely used to it. That’s her job. I’m her husband. I’m the one she comes home to for real.”
Mark is clearly smitten with Michelle and doesn’t mind letting the world know it. He admits to still pinching himself when he looks at his stunning other half.
“She’s gorgeous 24/7,” he says.
“She looks great with no make-up and jogging bottoms on, and she looks incredible when she gets dressed up for a smart event. I get completely overawed by how beautiful she is.”
I get completely overawed by how beautiful Michelle is.
Mark Wright
However, Michelle hasn’t entirely cured her husband of the bad-boy behaviour that was the norm when the former club promoter and model joined The Only Way Is Essex back in 2010.
Last summer, he was linked to a bust-up involving troubled EastEnders star Danny Dyer, 39, and his daughter Dani, 20, after the actor was involved in a fight with Mark’s friends at V Festival.
Mark was in the toilet at the time of the scuffle, which resulted in a black eye for Danny.
The feud between the two celebrities – who live near one another in Essex – dates back to 2013, when Danny said he was furious about being mistaken for Mark.
He commented at the time: “I don’t know [Mark], but he’s everything I hate about this celebrity world. He’s not up my street. He’ll never be a mate of mine. Good luck to him, just stay away from me.”
After the incident at V Festival, another argument broke out, this time online between Danny and Mark’s younger brother Josh when Danny tweeted: “My worst nightmare would be listening to Heart FM [where Mark presents a radio show] while eating an Oykos yoghurt [which Mark promotes]. It would be like p**sing razor blades.”
Referring to an argument between the two stars at a charity football match in 2013, Josh tweeted back: “You must still be hurting from when Mark gave you a slap in the changing room that day. Get over it you melt.”
Mark – who was one of the finalists of 2014’s Strictly Come Dancing – shifts in his seat and groans.
“I don’t want to have a feud with anyone and I don’t want to add any fuel to this fire. You just shouldn’t stir these things up. My brother didn’t realise it’s best to leave it alone. I have no problem with Danny Dyer. I wish him well. I just don’t want to get involved.”
It’s a remarkable turnaround from the flash and tanned (and frequently hot-headed) playboy who stole the show on TOWIE.
“That’s not who I am now,” he says.
“I’ve done a few appearances since on TOWIE, but I’d never go back. I left after a year and everything in my life has changed.
“My plan was to go from being a reality star [he was also a runner-up on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2011] to being a television and radio presenter, and that’s what I’m doing now.
“Michelle and I have been offered our own reality series, but we didn’t consider it for a second. What we both love most is shutting our front door and being in our house together.
“We cuddle up and watch telly. Michelle’s got me into romcoms. She couldn’t believe I’d never watched Along Came Polly, which is now one of my favourites.”
Wonders will never cease. For the boy who once treated Gants Hill’s Faces nightclub like his front room, this transformation into a chick-flick-loving homebody is quite something.
“My whole life used to be about going out – now it’s about staying in. Everything I want is at home. I’ve become an old bore. My mates are always having a dig about it, but I don’t care because I’m a happy man.
“Michelle is an amazing cook. She does a really mean tapas and the most gorgeous gambas pil pil with garlic bread. We’ll both stink of garlic, but it’s OK because one cancels out the other.
“My perfect night used to be dinner, bar then club now it’s dinner, bill and home. The other night we went out to a club and I was just dying for everyone to finish their drinks so we could go home.”
Mark, who dated TOWIE star Lauren Goodger for 11 years and broke off their one-year engagement following claims she cheated on him – which she’s denied – is also far more in touch with his feelings than he ever used to be.
On the eve of his 30th birthday in January, he felt himself tearing up as he prepared to face the big day.
He says: “I’ve got a boys’ group on WhatsApp and I messaged my mates to say I felt incredibly emotional.
“I was happy and sad, but in a really good way. When you are about to be 30, it makes you think about your life. I was thinking of everything that had happened to me and how I had my family, a beautiful wife and [one day] we’ll have our own family. I’ve got my career in place and I felt really grateful.
“Michelle was always the last piece of the jigsaw. I knew when I met her back in 2012 she was the one for me. I remember telling my mum about her and she told me that when you know, you know.”
Michelle was always the last piece of the jigsaw. I knew when I met her back in 2012 she was the one for me.
Mark Wright
His 30th birthday itself was even more emotional as his mum Carol, 56, made sausage plaits, the signature dish of Mark’s Nanny Pat, who died
last year at the age of 80 and who had also been a star of TOWIE.
“For a moment I thought Nanny Pat was there,” he says.
“That made the tears start. She’s still so loved and missed.”
Mark is now back with a new series of Take Me Out: The Gossip, which he’s presented since 2012.
And as a happily married man, Mark says he’s the perfect person to help other guys looking for love.
So committed is he to smoothing the way to romance, he put himself – and his Gossip co-star Laura Jackson – through weeks of just four hours’ sleep while they were filming in Tenerife.
On The Gossip, Mark and Laura catch up with the couples to evaluate their dates the morning after. But this series, Mark decided he and Laura should go clubbing with them so they could be there in the early hours when the fun really starts to happen.
“The only problem is that we got up at 5am or 6am to start filming but we were in the clubs till 3am,” Mark explains.
“We managed to get another hour or so of sleep in the afternoons, but it was a killer. I love talking through the relationships, though. I see these guys looking for love and I just want it to work out for them like it has for me. I’m such an old romantic.”
Mark’s career is rocketing. His Heart Radio show is going great guns (“I love doing that, Michelle and her whole family used to listen to it before we even met”) and the CBBC show The Dengineers he co-presents, in which special dens are built by designers and builders for kids in need, has been picked up in the US.
“I’m so proud of that programme,” he says.
“We’ve had kids with really serious health problems who just light up when these incredible places are built for them. When we built a community den in Manchester for a group of children with serious disabilities, I had to walk off set because I got so upset. I’m not ashamed to admit I cry. You see kids being so brave and happy with just one small helping hand and it makes you feel humble.”
With the TV format being taken to America, it also gives Mark the opportunity to follow his dreams to LA.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Los Angeles,” he says.
“I’m definitely going out there. Cat Deeley has done it, James Corden has made it. I’m not saying I’m in their league, but me and Michelle would definitely go out and give it a try. You never know what’s going to happen, but you can give everything your best shot.”
And it was his best shot that impressed Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho last year after Mark, a former semi-pro (he played for Southend United as a teenager) was made man of the match at Soccer Aid and scored for England from a 35-yard free-kick.
I was standing there butt naked having this intense conversation with the best football manager in the world.
Mark Wright
Mark and Jose – Mark’s manager that day – had an, ahem, face-to-face encounter in the changing rooms afterwards.
Mark, who’s the face of Umbro sportswear for 2017, had stripped naked and was about to get into the shower as Mourinho was coming out of the toilet.
“He said: ‘Great goal.’ I said: ‘Thank you,’ then he asked me why I quit football and said I could have made it to the big time. Someone else in the room said he needed a good left back. I laughed and he looked me right in the eye and said: ‘Why do you laugh? Don’t you believe in yourself?’
“I was standing there butt naked having this intense conversation with the best football manager in the world. That’s a moment I never expected.”
So does he have any regrets?
He laughs: “Are you joking? My life could never be better than this.”
If you love Mark and Michelle, check out what she had to say about their marriage and her stellar career.
Mark presents Take Me Out: The Gossip with Laura Jackson on ITV2 every Sunday night from April 23.