SOAP STAR RETURNS TO SHEREE Emmerdale fave says she’s glad WAG tag is finally dead
SHE was the WAG who had it all – married to a millionaire footballer, partying in paradise and with a high-profile acting career to boot.
But as she prepares for a surprise soap comeback former Emmerdale star Sheree Murphy insists the world has moved on. And she’s delighted.
Now a football manager’s wife – with husband Harry Kewell boss of Crawley Town – and a hard-working mum of four, it’s Sheree who tunes in to see how the other halves live.
“The Real Housewives of Cheshire lot do all the partying now,” says Sheree, 42.
“It has died down. The footballers’ wives I know are very down to earth. They’re very private.
“The focus now is on the footballers themselves, which is how it should be.
“I watch that Tamara Ecclestone programme to see how the super rich live – I want to see what her house is like.”
Glamorous
Sheree met Aussie Harry, 39, at a nightclub when he played for Leeds United and the couple married in 2003. Sheree was often spotted on hols or partying with Coleen Rooney and Alex Gerrard.
They became the original Wives And Girlfriends – then the WAGs term really took off at the 2006 World Cup when England players’ partners had their own HQ in Germany.
Sheree says: “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.”
The family lives in Cheshire and Harry commutes to his job in West Sussex.
She says: “You never know in football what’s going to happen. So we could all move down and then Harry gets the sack.
“I like the kids to have the stability. We’re all supporting him from afar. It can be lonely with Harry working away. But you just get on with it.”
In fact Sheree, mum to Taylor, 16,
Ruby, 1 14, Matilda, 10, an and Dolly, six, says their long distance relationship helps. “We spend a lot of time apart but when we do see each other it’s like a first date all over again. It keeps it exciting and fresh.”
This week Sheree ee returns to soap – but not in Emmerdale, where she first found und fame as Tricia Dingle in 1998, 998, but in Neighbours.
And she says the e role is all thanks to her friend nd and former Coronation tion Street star Ryan an Thomas, who has s swapped Weatherfield for Er Erinsborough. rinsborough. rinsborou Sheree guest-starred briefly on the Aussie soap four years ago as bar- owning Londoner Dakota Davies. She says: “He called me e for advice about g going in for Neighbours eighbours as he’d b been offered it. t. “I t told him he’d love ove it and he had to do it. Then I told him I’d been asked a to do an episode and he said his character r was looking for my character. It was so bizarre that the they are entwined.” d.” Ryan plays Rafael Humphreys, who belie believes Dakota could ould hold the answ answer to his mum’s ’s mysterious de death. Luckily, Sheree didn’t