The WAGs (wives and girlfriends) of footballers hold a strange fascination for Brits, with tabloids blaming them for the England team's loss in the 2006 World Cup. As two new documentaries tell the stories of Victoria Beckham and Coleen Rooney, Clare Thorp explores why the WAGs exert such a pull.
There's a moment in the first episode of Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story – a new documentary series telling the story behind– in which paparazzo George Bamby remembers the first time he was sent to photograph an unsuspecting Rooney, then known as Coleen McLoughlin. It was 2002 and her 16-year-old footballer boyfriend Wayne had just scored his first Premier League goal for Everton. The British tabloids wanted to know everything about this new star – including who he was dating.
While footballers' wives had always been of interest, they became tabloid fodder in the early 2000s to reference a nickname given to players' wives and girlfriends by a Dubai hotel. That same year ITV launched its camp –– drama Footballer's Wives. But it was at the 2006 World Cup in Germany that the term – and concept – really exploded.
At that time, the obsession with celebrity culture was peaking. Competition among the tabloids and a new raft of celebrity magazines created a constant thirst for stories, while the rise of reality TV had fuelled a desire for famous faces that were relatable, rather than untouchable. ''Not even the stores of Vuitton and Gucci can keep up with the daily attack of the hooligans with Visas.":"Their lack of imagination and narrowness of outlook is staggering. They possess no curiosity about anything other than clothes, champagne and their reflections." The disdain expressed for the WAGs often reeked of classism, as well as misogyny – as if these women should know their place.
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