Lauren Goodger has recently been speaking out about her relationship with Mark Wright and fans were not impressed with what she had to say – now, a source has claimed Mark and his star actress wife Michelle Keegan are also unimpressed
Lauren Goodger has come under fire on social media after she tearfully opened up about her previous relationships, referring to her ex Mark Wright as “the love of my life”.
In a bombshell interview, the 37-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex star made several poignant admissions while speaking with dating expert Paul C Brunson on his We Need to Talk podcast. She shared how their separation 12 years ago “broke” her and left her feeling like she was “never going to love anyone else”.
The reality TV personality became visibly upset when she spoke about Mark’s unfulfilled promise to build her a house, a dream he later realised with his wife Michelle, and her struggles following their tumultuous break up.
“I never ever thought I was going to love anyone else,” she confessed. “I was with him for 12 years on and off. It wasn’t a smooth sailing relationship. We broke up a few months here, got back together, but we grew up together. We grew up. “He was the love of my life. We wouldn’t have stayed together for that long if he didn’t have this mutual feeling for me.”
Despite more than a decade passing since their split, and Mark, 37, being happily married to former Corrie star Michelle Keegan since 2015, her candid interview didn’t sit well with some online. One person saidL “He has a stunning wife and a career. Should she not just stop talking about him.” Another added: “This woman really needs to leave it. He’s been married for nine years. Have some respect for yourself and them and stop talking about him. ” A third added: “I feel bad for her, she needs to leave him alone. There’s no reason they would need to talk to each other.”
Following the backlash, a source revealed to OK! that Lauren’s comments also didn’t sit well with Mark and Michelle, 37. “It’s not that Michelle can’t sympathise with Lauren or is cross with her, she doesn’t know her at all, but she doesn’t like what she reads when Lauren talks about her,” they alleged. “Mark also gets annoyed and he’s very protective of his wife and family. He doesn’t like them being brought up by Lauren, especially as it was so long ago. It’s ancient history for him.”
Lauren, who began her relationship with Mark at the age of 15, shared with Married at First Sight expert Paul that she respected her famous ex had “moved on with his life”, but added: “I don’t think that sort of love from childhood goes away. I would love to say, ‘Hey, how are you? All good?’ We don’t speak.”
The first and second series of The Only Way is Essex showcased the ups and downs of Lauren and Mark’s relationship. While it may be a thing of the past for Mark and Michelle, Lauren’s recent comeback on the ITVBe show has brought it back into the spotlight. In a recent episode, the mother of one talked about the ‘Mark’ tattoo she got in an intimate area during their relationship.
Mark, who tied the knot with ‘Fool Me Once’ sensation Michelle in 2015, is said to be less than thrilled about being dragged back into TOWIE drama. A source revealed: “Mark hasn’t been in TOWIE for a long time and his career has moved on a lot since then. And with Michelle doing so well in her career after the Netflix success, it’s just not the image they want to be putting out there. It’s not the sort of attention they want to be associated with.”
Mark, clearly irked by mentions of him by an ex, took to Twitter back in 2015 and lashed out with a plea, writing: “If your reading this, please PLEASE respect my wife and STOP. Everyone has a past, get over it!! I really didn’t want to have to do this but enough is enough. I wish you well but leave me, my life and my wife out of it. Im sure there is other ways to make money.” [sic]
While some fans were critical of Lauren’s candid podcast remarks about Mark, others rallied around her, empathising with her situation. One supporter argued: “It’s a podcast talking about her life, why wouldn’t she mention him, they were together since they were 15.” Another sympathised: “Poor love, I just want to hug her and tell everything is going to [be] just right one day”.
Lauren herself responded to the podcast backlash with a post on Instagram, standing her ground. She candidly told her followers: “The podcast is not about those mentioned but about how those relationships shaped me as a person, for good and for bad. Telling my story was never about shaming, blaming or hurting anyone else but just telling my story to help me heal and move forward with my life and career with positivity. These are questions I am always asked and I’m no longer afraid to answer.”
Lauren has endured more than her fair share of heartbreak since her initial time on TOWIE, including the tragic death of her ex, Jake McLean, in a horrific car accident in Turkey during summer 2022. In that same period, she faced incomprehensible grief when her second daughter, Lorena, passed away shortly after being born at full term.
Psychologist Stefan Walters, an expert in trauma and Brainspotting therapy, suggests that it’s common for individuals to romanticise past relationships amidst recent tribulations. He said: “It’s often less about idealising the other person and more about idealising the version of yourself, the person you were, when you were in that relationship. There can be a sense that we’ve lost that version of ourselves and we would regain that version if we were still with that person.
“It’s often that life has moved on and things have happened to us since that relationship, and it causes us to look back at who we once were. Things have certainly happened to Lauren and she’s been through some awful traumas, and perhaps the fantasy is to go back to that time of naivety and innocence.
“There’s also a fantasy of an ‘unlived life’, and we just project that onto the other person that we were with at that time, and I get the sense that she’s doing that with Mark.”
Meanwhile, as the podcast fallout continues, insiders tell OK! Mark and Michelle are keen to put the past behind them.
A source said: “They’ve both got so much going on and they don’t need someone dragging up history from so many years ago. They’ve got no issues with Lauren, they just want her to move on.”