Alex Curran is about to make a shocking admission. Shaking back her glossy
blonde hair, she says in her unmistakable Scouse accent: “I actually love
being a WAG. I love taking care of my kids, looking after my husband, doing
the cooking and making the home all nice.”
Win Alex’s amazing dress!
It’s a remark you don’t expect to hear from a celebrated WAG. Sure, most think
it – but hardly any would ever admit it, preferring instead to go to great
lengths to prove they are far more than simply the wife or girlfriend of a
football star.
But Alex, 27, who is of course married to Liverpool FC and England player
Steven Gerrard, is different to your average WAG.
Hankering after a career in showbiz is not for her. Why? Because she believes
she already has the most important job in the world – being a wife to
Steven, 30, and mum to daughters Lilly-Ella, six, and Lexie, four. And, as
she says, what’s wrong with that?
“That’s what makes me happy,” she explains to us in a rare interview. “I’ve no
plans to be a Victoria Beckham or a Cheryl Cole. I’m really happy with what
I’ve got.”
But that hasn’t stopped her marriage to one of the country’s most high-profile
players coming under the same sort of scrutiny as Mrs Beckham, 36 and Mrs
Cole, 26.
When we meet Alex to talk about her exclusive World Cup column starting on
June 13 in the News of the World, the state of 
her
three-year marriage to Steven has just been the subject of some scurrilous
rumours.
Steven had apparently moved into a hotel, while she’d taken off her £75,000
wedding ring. But we can report that today, for our interview, it is on her
ring finger, along with her huge diamond engagement ring.
And unless she’s the world’s greatest actress, Alex is showing absolutely no
sign that anything in her world is amiss.
“There have been loads of rumours going around Liverpool saying that me and
Steven have split up, that he’s moved to a hotel and ridiculous things like
that,” she says.
“The truth is, we’ve never been happier. I wouldn’t mind, but we don’t even
argue.”
She settles back on a leather sofa on the set of the south London photo
studio.
“Steven and I trust each other. I know that there are some girls who do fling
themselves at footballers, but I don’t worry about it with Steven.
I don’t want to be a Victoria Beckham]]>
“I know what makes him tick. We have great fun together, we make each other
laugh and we’re really good mates.
“He has nights out with the boys every now and then. But he loves his family,
and when he has time off he enjoys taking the girls to the zoo or on a day
out.”
While she may not be concerned about other women, she does worry about being
interviewed. Alex is, despite appearances, quite shy. And while she’s
regularly papped laden with designer bags, she insists she prefers looking
after her daughters to hitting the shops.
“My days revolve around Steven, the girls and the gym. I do the school run, I
do the cooking. I always have.
“When Steven comes home I make him a cup of tea. I know it sounds
old-fashioned, but we’re quite traditional. I’m really proud of him and what
he’s achieved and that he’s going to represent the country in the World Cup,
even though I’ll miss him.”
This year’s tournament is set to be very different from the last WAG-fest in
Germany in 2006, when the players’ significant others famously shopped up a
storm in Baden-Baden and made more headlines for their antics than their
partners did for their football.
“I was a bit shocked about the whole WAG thing,” Alex admits. “We just thought
we were all having a nice time.”
At the moment, she’s not even sure if she’ll go to South Africa next month for
the World Cup, as she doesn’t want to disrupt her two daughters’ schooling.
“Most of the girls who were there last time around have kids now, so I think
it’ll be very different,” she says.
Besides, the last thing Alex wants is to be the centre of attention. It may
come as a surprise to learn that this WAG has turned down a string of
high-profile offers, including Dancing On Ice, I’m A Celebrity! and an
underwear campaign.
“I said ‘no’ to that straightaway. I don’t want to be standing on a poster in
a pair of knickers and a bra. I can imagine the chants on the pitch after
that! It’s not for me, and I just wouldn’t do it to Steven.”
A night out to an Elton John concert a few months ago tells you all you need
to know about Alex’s self-confidence – or lack of it.
“Elton invited me and Steven to go backstage. I thought we’d say hello and
leave, but he sat us down and we were there for about an hour with everyone
talking. It was amazing. But all of a sudden he looked at me and said: ‘I
like the ring you’re wearing, Alex.’
“Everyone in the room turned and stared at me and I blurted out something
stupid like: ‘Oh. It only cost a fiver.’ I was mortified because all the
attention was suddenly turned on me. Sometimes I do wish I was more
confident, or one of those girls who always knows what to say. Steven just
laughs at me. He’ll say: ‘Look how red you’ve gone.’”
On our shoot today, Alex worries about telling us what part of her body she
likes best, saying it will make her sound like a “massive big head”. And she
frets about her skirt blowing up and exposing her legs in photos, in case
she embarrasses Steven or her family.
So it’s hard to imagine how she copes with the scrutiny she faces as the wife
of an England footballer, especially as her life now is so far removed from
her early years.
Alex was born into a working-class family in Liverpool. She and her two
brothers – Neil, 29, and Tom, 21 – were raised by her mum, Kim. Growing up,
all she wanted to do was work in beauty (she trained as a nail technician).
She met Steven on a night out when she was 20 and he asked her friend for
her phone number. But their first date was not how she’d imagined. She was
babysitting her brother and Steven turned up out of the blue and spent the
evening chez Curran.
“I was wearing my pyjamas or something. I wasn’t looking glam. But we just got
on, and that was that,” she remembers.
Since then, Alex has rarely been out of the headlines. Mostly, it has to be
said, for her crimes against fashion and her perma tan. Not any more,
though. These days, Alex is courted by fashion houses and splashed across
the pages of Vogue. So what happened?
“I do wonder what the hell I was thinking. I always laugh at myself in that
yellow Juicy Couture tracksuit and Moon Boots. I was slated, but I thought I
looked great. All the girls in Liverpool dressed like that, so I didn’t
think there was anything wrong.
“It’s only in the last few years, as I’ve got older, that I’ve completely
toned it down. I’m not orange now and I don’t buy clothes for the sake of
it. I tend to buy classic pieces.”
“Steven likes me best in trackie bottoms, a T-shirt and no make-up. But I
don’t like being photographed like that. I like to be smart.”
That’s not the only thing that’s changed. After years of eating junk food and
never exercising, 5ft 8in Alex has become a gym bunny after being papped
with an untoned tummy on holiday in Florida in 2008.
“Most of my life I could eat what I wanted and never worry. I’d have chocolate
and never exercise. I was always a size 10, but I had no waist and I looked
so untoned.”
After changing her eating habits and working out at the gym three times a week
for an hour at a time, Alex has dropped 8lb and is now a slim, toned size
8-10 and 8st. And her new figure has had another benefit.
“The one thing I regret is having a boob job to go from a B cup to a D cup
when I was 18. I did it because I was quite flat-chested, but when I got
pregnant my boobs blew up. After having Lexie I felt self-conscious. I’d put
on a dress and all I could see were boobs.
“I did think about getting the implants taken out, but in the end going to the
gym has changed everything. My shape has changed so I look much more in
proportion.”
It’s clear that while Alex lives a life most of us can only dream about – she
drives a £175,000 Aston Martin, the same model that featured in the latest
James Bond movie, has wardrobes bursting with designer labels and a gym in
her garden – she insists it’s the simple things in life that really make her
happy.
She enjoys watching cookery programmes and pottering around in the kitchen
(Steven loves her spaghetti Bolognese and she cooks a mean goat’s cheese and
chilli pasta she tells us proudly). She was recently papped leaving the
Warehouse Kitchen And Bar in Southport, which Steven has financed, but
prefers staying in and watching MTV’s The Hills than going to nightclubs.
Steven would love us to have a baby boy]]>
What about those nights out on the town with Jordan et al?
“I went out with Katie a few times, ages ago. I don’t go out so much these
days. I go for meals with Steven, but if you’re married to a footballer
they’re away a lot and I’m at home. I don’t know Cheryl or Victoria and I
don’t hang out with WAGs, except Sheree Murphy, wife of footballer Harry
Kewell.”
She doesn’t like to talk about negative things that have happened. In 2007,
while Steven was away playing football, she was confronted by four armed
robbers in her £3million home as her daughters slept. They threatened to get
a knife and told Alex: “If you don’t tell us where the safe is, we’ll take
the kids.” They eventually fled with a silver Rolex watch. “It takes a long
time to get over it,” is all Alex will say. And it’s clear she’s still
traumatised by it.
It’s incidents like this, along with her own upbringing, which perhaps explain
why she doesn’t take anything for granted.
“I didn’t grow up with the things I’ve got now and I appreciate what I have,”
she says.
“I think I have an amazing life. I have opportunities I never dreamed of, and
I may be just a housewife, but it makes me happy.
“I love my life, my husband and my kids. I don’t want anything more than what
I have – maybe we’ll have another baby though, as I think Steven would love
to have a boy.
So, can Alex explain the off-side rule? She throws her head back and laughs:
“No. It’s terrible, but I can’t. I’ll watch every match in the World Cup and
all Steven’s games, but I definitely couldn’t explain that one.” Luckily,
she knows a man who can.
-
Don’t miss Alex’s exclusive World Cup column in the News of the World on
June 13.
Googled yourself? Yes, to check for any ridiculous pictures, and there
were some so I don’t do it any more.
Lied about your age? Yes, to get into a bar when I was younger.
Blamed something bad on someone else? Yes, I quite often do this at
home when it’s a bit of a mess. I sometimes say it’s the dog or the
children.
Feigned illness to avoid a social situation? Yes, but I don’t want to
say when and why I have!
Taken something back to a shop after wearing it? No! I’d feel really
guilty if I did that.
Pretended to remember someone when they came over to say hello? Yes, it
happens all the time.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY:
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GUY KREMER SALON USING L’OREAL PROFESSIONEL TECHNI.ART MAKE-UP: JUSTINE
JENKINS USING MAC AND ORGANIC PHARMACY STYLING LUCIE CLIFFORD ALEX WEARS:
DRESS, DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY BY JAN GREENE (JANDGREENE@YAHOO.CO.UK); SHOES,
NEW LOOK (0500 454 094); BALL, STYLIST’S OWN
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