Footballer's Wives cast now from Coronation Street to sex scene that scarred star for life

Daily Mirror

24-04-2025

From burned boobs and swapped babies to bonking the manager to death, there was no shortage of drama on ITV's iconic Footballer's Wives, but what happened to stars including Zoe Lucker and Susie Amy once the cameras stopped rolling?
Back in the early Noughties, Footballers Wives was a riot of cocaine snorting, bed-hopping and murder - with a hefty amount of back-stabbing thrown in for good measure.
The plotlines were outrageous - like the time chief WAG Tanya Turner (Zoe Lucker) decided to 'sh*g' the manager of Premier League club Earls Park FC to death. Or when Chardonnay (Susie Amy) let bad egg Jason Turner (Cristian Solimeno) plunge to his death after he rejected his son Paddy for being born an hermaphrodite.
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Before reality TV was properly a thing, the ITV offering was compulsive viewing. Sadly it wound up after just four series, but what became of cult show's stars after the champagne stopped flowing?
Zoe Luker - Tanya Turner
As the wicked witch of the WAGs, Tanya lived to sniff cocaine and plot the downfall of others. Primarily intent getting husband Jason to keep his mini-Jase in his pants, the calculating star plotted, manipulated and connived her way to the top of the pecking order.
Unburdened by remorse, she left manager Frank Laslett for dead before bedding Jason's agent Hazel Bailey (Alison Newman). But her crowning glory came when she cooked up a plot to bonk Frank to death using a cocktail of cocaine, Viagra and booze. After leaving Footballer's Wives, Tanya fittingly popped up in jailbird drama Bad Girls, serving hard time after being caught red-handed with her precious narcs.
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But in real life, actress Zoe's personality couldn't be further away from that of her alter-ego and to this day she struggles to watch some of the x-rated antics Tanya got up to. "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!" the Waterloo Road star previously told The Mirror.
"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."
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Zoe went on to star in EastEnders and Hollyoaks but quit in 2016 to spend more time with her daughter Lily, and husband James Herbert. She is now on an indefinite hiatus from acting, telling Attitude magazine in 2024: "I've been in a space the last few years where I've taken a step back from it all. I'm not saying I'm not ever going to act again, but I don't look at myself in roles at the minute," she added.
But she delighted fans when she was spotted in the audience of Dancing On Ice in February 2024 cheering on former co-star Ricky Norwood and I'm A Celebrity star Adele Roberts. Guest judge Johnny Weir alerted the crowds to her presence, exclaiming: "Zoë I love you so much – thank you for Tanya!"
Cristian Solimeno - Jason Turner
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Like his wife Tanya, Jason was constantly furious and looking for a kick-off. Deeply damaged after being given up for adoption by his birth parents, he enjoyed tormenting those closest to him, including his long-suffering spouse. His coup de grace came when he unknowingly got teammate Kyle's mum Jackie Pascoe (Gillian Taylforth) pregnant, and Kyle and his wife Chardonnay tried to pass the baby off as their own.
Things got messy when Jason found out and decided to claim little Paddy as his own, only to reject the tot when he discovered he'd been born an hermaphrodite. Marred by his own meddling, Jason plunged to his death at the end of series two as Chardonnay watched on, refusing to help.
Cristian, now 44, later appeared in Wire in the Blood, Spooks and Hollyoaks, and wrote and directed psychological thriller The Glass Man starring Neve Campbell.
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And just like Zoe, he had nothing in common with his wayward character and even had to ditch his own clean living in a bid to get on his level. He said at the time: "I've started drinking again, and puffing on big cigars... that's Jason, he spirals out of control physically. 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."
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Susie Amy - Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe
Glamour model Chardonnay didn't need no man to take care of her and refused to stop stripping just because she was engaged to Kyle Pascoe (Gary Lucy). But her feminist plan was heartbreakingly foiled when her fake boobs caught fire on her hen do, leaving her scarred for life.
She instead threw herself in to trying to have a baby, and when that failed, she hatched the fateful plan to raise little Paddy. But unlike Tanya, Chardonnay wasn't cut out for duplicity and after Jason's sticky end, she died from an eating disorder, exacerbated by guilt.
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In real life, Susie and Gary reunited on screen to play exes Luke and Scarlett Morgan on Hollyoaks in 2018. And when she gave birth to daughter Noa in 2019, he was first on the scene, cracking the jokes. "F**k! Did we? No? S**t?!!!" Gary cheekily commented on her Instagram picture.
Since then she has appeared in Death In Paradise and Silent Hours. She appeared in a theatre production of The Marilyn Conspiracy, playing Marilyn Monroe's close friend Pat Newcomb on the night of the movie star's tragic death. Susie has been with fellow actor Raphael Bar for years and now shares two children with him.
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Gary Lucy - Kyle Pascoe
Gary had already made a name for himself as a teen actor on Hollyoaks, portraying a harrowing rape storyline when his character Luke was attacked.
And so just 21 when he joined the cast of Footballer's Wives, the show came as light relief. "I was living the dream at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed it," Gary - who has since starred in The Bill and EastEnders - told The Sun. And in exciting news for fans, the actor also hinted at a possible reunion.
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"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." And while Kyle never managed to fulfil his baby dreams with Chardonnay, Gary is the proud dad of children India Jasmine, Sadie, Elvis and Theodore, who he welcomed with ex-wife Natasha Grey.
Ben Price - Conrad Gates
These days Ben is of course better known as slippery Nick Tilsley from Coronation Street. But almost 20 years ago he was a relative unknown when he joined the cast as the savage captain of Earls Park.
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Despite being married to Amber, Conrad quickly embarked on a toxic affair with Tanya and was up the proverbial creek without a paddle when both got pregnant at the same time. Unbeknown to Conrad though, was that Frank was actually the father of Tanya's baby and in a bid to cover her tricky tracks, she swapped her newborn with Amber's.
Sadly, with Frank freshly dead, her machinating imploded in her face when Amber's 'son' got smothered to death by her pet dog, leaving Tanya distraught. Post Earls Park, Ben has enjoyed a stellar career, starring in Casualty and The Tudors before joining Coronation Street in 2009.
He has two children - Paloma and Max - with wife Alexandra Wheeler and walked away from Corrie for a brief spell to be a stay-at-home dad 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."
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Katherine Monaghan - Donna Walmsley
In a world of vicious barbs and backstabbing, Donna and her husband Ian were the warmth of the show. Fresh to Earls Park as a promising young player, he desperately wanted to help Donna find the son she'd been forced to give up for adoption as a teenager.
But while Donna was good, her little sister wasn't quite so straightlaced and wound up having an affair with Jason. These days, Katherine, 45, is known for appearing in British crime drama Vera along with BBC dramas 55 Degrees North and Judge John Deed.
She has also stars in plays at London's Theatre 503 and Live Theatre Company in her native Newcastle.