Marcus’s Katy lookalike partner is Carrie-ing his teeny Sweeney
Failed restaurateur and girlfriend ‘thrilled’ to be expecting
BUSINESSMAN Marcus Sweeney and his waitress girlfriend are expecting their first child, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Marcus – who previously dated tragic model Katy French, has been in a relationship for more than a year with Carrie Pearce, who bears a striking resemblance to the late model.
Carrie told the MoS: ‘We’re delighted. We just told family and friends a few weeks ago. I’m five and half months pregnant and it’s very exciting.’
When contacted by the MoS, Marcus said that he too was thrilled that Carrie was expecting.
The former restaurateur, who has also dated actress Leigh Arnold, is currently working as a used-car salesman in Blanchardstown in west Dublin, the MoS can reveal. ‘It’s great news,’ he said. The striking blond posted a picture of herself and Marcus this week on her Facebook page, as well, commenting: ‘Can u believe I’m gone 5 months? It’s flying by. Xxx’
The photo sparked congratulatory comments from other Facebook users, and Carrie responded: ‘Im feeling very special with all the lovely comments! Thanks everybody! Xx’
The similarities between Carrie and Marcus’s ex, Katy, go beyond their striking physical resemblance. Carrie knew Katy growing up, as their fathers were colleagues in the property business and the two families were on friendly terms. The girls, who were just over a year apart in age, both ended up signed to the same modelling agency, Assets.
But the physical similarities between the two women border on the uncanny – and Carrie previously told the MoS that she was used to comparisons with Katy.
‘I used to get told a lot I looked like Katy but aside from both of us being tall and blonde, I don’t really see it,’ Carrie said.
‘I don’t know if Marcus thinks I look like Katy – I don’t think that’s how he is thinking. I really don’t think he sees that. Marcus and I haven’t talked about Katy. It doesn’t come up.’
Blond and permanently sporting an unlikely deep tan, Marcus was once a poster boy for the boom, often with a high-profile date on his arm and repeatedly taking on ambitious restaurant ventures.
He suffered a series of spectacular failures – and one of the failed ventures, Il Pomo D’oro on South William Street, was central to the explosive end of his relationship with Katy.
They split after she posed in her underwear, draped across a table in the restaurant they were just about to launch.
Marcus changed the name from Number Ten to Il Pomo D’oro and went ahead but it soon emerged that he was already deeply in debt from another failed restaurant venture, a Lemongrass franchise in Clontarf, which closed down owing money to suppliers and to two Polish waitresses.
Carrie said she didn’t know Marcus at the time he was involved with Katy, as she was never particularly close with the model personally.
‘I knew Katy because I knew her family. Her dad and my dad were business partners and I met her once or twice,’ she said. ‘I was a couple of years older than her so we weren’t the same age to be friends. I didn’t know her when she was going out with Marcus. I don’t want to upset Katy’s family. I feel bad.’
Even when their romance was in its early stages, Carrie said: ‘He’s a sweetheart. He gets a lot of bad press that he doesn’t deserve but he’s very gentle and a lovely guy.’