Sheree Murphy admits being a WAG is lonely and she feels like a single parent
Sheree Murphy a lonely WAG
Having just landed a job on Hollyoaks it seems like Sheree Murphy has the dream life she has always craved, however she has admitted that things aren’t as they seem and her life is more lonely than glam!
Her footballing husband Harry Kewell moved to Istanbul two years ago as he now plays for Turkish side Galatasaray, so the family which includes Taylor, eight, Ruby, six and Matilda who is two, are forced to communicate over the internet rather than in the flesh.
Sheree, 34, says: “It’s like we’re living a parallel virtual life. He Skypes us every night so we can be together when we eat. We even have a device that means Harry can tune into the same TV -programmes from over there. He tells me to turn it on so he doesn’t miss his favourite shows!”
“It is lonely. I feel like a single parent most of the time. I’d love Harry to come home but I’ve never been one to stand in his way. Like any relationship, it’s difficult. All you can do is trust that person and hope they’re true to you. But you just don’t know, do you?
“Harry could be over there ¬having the time of his life. I’d never be stupid enough to say it could never happen.”
“Harry will always say: ‘If you don’t want me to go away then I won’t.’ But he’s only got a few more years as a footballer left and he loves playing out there. They love him.”
“The good thing is that Harry is not a party boy. He loves just being with the kids. When he’s home, it’s more likely we’re watching Saturday night TV or eating a Chinese. With kids around all the time, of course there are times when we think: ‘How are we going to get the spice back?’ So each year my mum takes them and we get our holiday together.”
However, Sheree does praise Harry for his amazing romantic gestures: “I went to Turkey a few weeks ago and he’d planned this whole evening. I had a shower and he told me to put something nice on. As I did my hair and make-up, I spotted someone in his kitchen.
“It turned out he’d got in a chef from our favourite restaurant Zuma. Then I went into his lounge and Harry had made the most romantic setting.
“He had been throwing rose petals here and there, thinking: ‘No, that doesn’t look right – I’ll try them here.’ He lit candles everywhere, decorated the table and put on an iPod soundtrack of my favourite songs. It was so lovely I shed a few tears.”
After flying back and forth from their Cheshire home for so long, Sheree admits she thought they would be used to painful goodbyes by now.
“You’d think by now it would be: ‘OK, see you soon.’ But Harry was in floods of tears only this morning because he had to say goodbye to Ruby who was flying back. Now he won’t see the children until the end of March. He’s had his low moments but that is because he is on his own. He does it to make us proud.”
But before he comes home, there’s the World Cup in South Africa, where Harry will play for his national side Australia.
“I’ll be with the Aussie wives. They’re very laid back and the whole WAG culture hasn’t really reached them. Over here, it’s a bit out of control. I first felt it get crazy when Harry moved to Liverpool. There was more focus on the wives because the players were earning more money.”
Sheree argues that being a WAG isn’t as fantastic as some girls think it is, especially with the fact that the majority of footballers have girls throwing themselves at them making infidelity a big problem.
“They can’t win. If you stay with them you are a fool. If you leave them, you’re a fool. But if someone is going to cheat they are going to cheat, whether they’re a footballer or they work in Sainsbury’s.”
“Of course, a lot of young girls still aspire to it. They see it as this glamorous lifestyle. The reality’s not like that. Half the time your fella’s away – and most of us have kids. So mostly, it’s everyday stuff, like taking kids to school and helping with homework. It’s normal life.”
