elliott & sadie wright
ELLIOTT AND SADIE WRIGHT SHARE THE HAPPY NEWS THAT THEY’RE EXPECTING THEIR SECOND CHILD FOLLOWING THE TRAGIC LOSS OF HIS FATHER, AND REVEAL THEIR MISSION TO REBUILD HIS SPANISH RESTAURANT
It’s been a hard year for us all, but for Elliott Wright and his family it’s been six months full of tragedy. In the midst of the pandemic, Elliott’s grandparents, uncle Mark and father Eddie were all hospitalised with Covid. Devastatingly, on 2 March, his beloved dad lost his battle with the cruel illness and was laid to rest in a beautiful ceremony on 15 April.
To add to the former TOWIE star’s heartbreak, just 11 days after his dad’s funeral, his Spanish restaurant, Olivia’s La Cala, burned down.
But despite the cloud of grief and sorrow, when we catch up with Elliott, 40, and his wife Sadie, 29, they have big smiles on their faces as they exclusively share their amazing, positive news with OK! – they are expecting their second child together.
The timing proves bittersweet, as Elliott tells us, because when he found out Sadie was pregnant, his first thought was of his late father.
“I thought, this is the first grandchild that’s not going to have met my dad, and that’s an upsetting thing for me,” he says. “But the next thought was, he sent this baby down.”
Talking of their heartbreaking year, Sadie, who is four months pregnant, adds, “It’s been hard, but it’s made us stronger as a family and as a couple and what doesn’t break you only makes you stronger.
“We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s going to be great – I can feel it!”
The new baby will be a sibling for their two-year-old son Billy as well as Elliott’s children Elliott, 14, and Olivia, 12, from a previous relationship.
Here, the couple talk about the angel sent down from his father, coping with their grief and focusing on the rebirth of his Spanish restaurant…
Congratulations to you both. This is such lovely news in what’s been a difficult year…
Elliott: Yeah, it’s been tough. I’ve probably had the worst year of my life and probably the worst I’m ever going to have. At the start of this year I unfortunately lost my father and then my restaurant burned down 11 days after I buried my dad. I’ve always been a positive person and I’m trying to look at the positives. I said to Sadie, “My dad sent us an angel.” We’re taking the positives out of that.
You must be so excited about the baby! Sadie: So excited. With the first one you don’t really know what to expect and the second time around you know what’s coming. We feel settled and content in our little family and we’re happy to welcome another baby. It’s felt like a time when we needed the good vibes and the positivity and it’s turned our year around. Elliott: It’s something to look forward to now. It’s positive baby steps with rebuilding the restaurant and we’ve got the baby to look forward to. From a very dark tunnel, we’ve seen the light and are heading towards it.
Was it a planned baby or a surprise? Sadie: Elliott was 40 last December and I’m going to be 30 next February, and I didn’t want to be pregnant for either, because I wanted to have a drink and enjoy myself. So I gave myself 14 months to fall pregnant with the baby and have the baby. That’s quite hard, but we’ve managed it. It was planned, but it came very quick, so we were happy about that.
Tell us about the moment you found out about the pregnancy…
Sadie: Elliott was in Spain and I had a feeling. So when he came back I did the pregnancy test. I called him and said, “I need to show you something upstairs.” He was in a daze and came into the bathroom and I gave him the pregnancy test. He looked at it, but didn’t know what he was looking at and was like, “What’s this?” And I said, “I’m pregnant!” Then he said the first thing he thought of was his dad and then the next thing he thought of was a little girl. Elliott: I was thinking about what tiles to get for the restaurant and then I got a pregnancy test shoved in my face – I did a double-take! My first thought was my dad, and my dad’s not going to know this baby. But then I thought, he sent this baby down to me. Straight away I said, “It’s a girl.” And I still feel it is. I’ve already got a little blonde princess and I reckon I’ve got a little dark-haired princess coming, too.
Will you find out the gender? Elliott: No.
Sadie: No.
Elliott: We’ll keep it a surprise. It’s such a lovely experience to not know.
Elliott, you sadly lost your father Eddie in March. How have you been coping? Elliott: I’m the type of person who, when they have a knock, picks themselves up. I was extremely close to my dad and he taught me everything. He’d be the one who’d say, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get on with it, son.” And that’s how I’ve taken it. In a strange way, I feel my dad around me every day. He’s there beside me and I can feel him around me in Spain, especially going through this nightmare experience [rebuilding his restaurant]. Conversations I would have had, I still have with him, because I know what he would have said. Part of the grief is taken away,
because I haven’t had the option to grieve, but in a weird way I feel my dad even more so in a time of crisis.
What legacy will your dad leave?
Elliott: He was the centrepiece and he was the magnet that held the family together. In his last hours and days he kept saying, “Please make sure Billy doesn’t forget me.” He taught the kids how to play golf and whenever we go to Spain, Billy always says, “Where’s Grandad? Oh, he’s playing golf.” So he thinks Grandad’s on the golf course now.
How have the children coped with the loss of their grandad?
Elliott: I think children can be better equipped to deal with grief than adults. But saying that, they were deeply upset because they were very close to my dad.
Has it brought you closer together as a family? Elliott: Absolutely. We’ve got our family group chat and my dad was always about the family gatherings. Right now we’re making a point that everyone is going to go on holiday once a year at least, because that’s what my dad always thought about. I want to spend a bit more time with the kids if I can, too.
Were you able to give him a good send-off at the funeral?
Sadie: It was everything he would have loved. Elliott: I wanted a proper send-off for my dad. It was special. It was perfect.
Sadie: We were only allowed 30 people to the wake and our family is huge, but it was just our nearest and dearest there and it was actually quite special. Elliott’s dad’s favourite food is pie and mash, so we had that and jellied eels. It was everything he would have wanted.
‘I STILL HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH MY DAD – I KNOW WHAT HE WOULD HAVE SAID’
Elliott: He loved a bottle of wine called Viña Ardanza, which he put on every menu. I brought that back from Spain and we toasted my dad.
Elliott, your cousin Mark recently did an interview where he wanted to get across the devastating impact Covid can have. Is that a message you want to relay, too? Elliott: I think Mark hit the nail on the head. It is real and more importantly it nearly took away the key people in our family. It nearly took nan and grandad and my uncle and unfortunately it took my dad. It’s been a steep learning curve in the family and luckily we got through it with just losing my father. We’ve been through a war but good always outweighs evil.
How are the rest of the family doing? Elliott: All positive. Everyone’s looking forward to coming to Spain when they can and we’ve got a couple of weddings this year in our family to look forward to.
That’s great! We’re sorry to hear about the restaurant, though…
Elliott: It was devastating, but I’m quite a pragmatic person and you can’t let these things beat you. A lot of people would bury themselves away, but you have to tackle it head-on and that’s what I’ve done. Someone’s tried to destroy me and my business and to do it 11 days after my dad’s funeral was personal to me – that’s how I’ve taken it. I don’t know if they underestimated the type of person I am, but I’m ferocious in my approach to it. I’ve got 35 builders on site some days and I’m hell-bent on reopening it and making it bigger and better than ever.
We can’t wait to see it!
Elliott: I’ve taken it as a challenge and I’m so excited for the reopening, because it’s enabled me to do things I couldn’t before. I’ve always wanted a Turkish restaurant, so I’m doing that. The idea has been born out of a
tragedy. I thought, “What’s a good name for a Turkish restaurant born out of the ashes?” Phoenix translated into Turkish is anka kuşu. And that’s what we’ve called it. My plan is to open Olivia’s on 10 June and the rest of the restaurant a week later. I’ve had so much support. So many people said, “We want to help. We’ve got a team of people if you can just pay for our flights and we’ll work for free.” People can’t fly over there, but the support I’ve had is overwhelming.
What’s the latest on the investigation? Elliott: It’s ongoing – I’ve got two people on camera who tried to break in and didn’t succeed and then came back at a later date and poured fuel over the bar area. Unfortunately, it was the lower part of the building and it got underneath the decking and ultimately that’s what blew the bar up. It’s still an ongoing investigation and obviously very recent. What I know is, the damage is done. I can’t change what’s happened in the past, only the future, so I must focus on that right now.
It’s great you’re taking the positives out of it. Back to the baby… Sadie, how’s your pregnancy been so far? Sadie: Definitely a different experience to when I was pregnant with Billy. With Billy it flew. I looked well and felt well, but this time around I’ve not been great. To be completely honest, I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or the stress I’ve had. From the minute the baby was conceived the stress has been on another level. Elliott: That’s why I think it’s a girl… because you're having different symptoms with this baby.
Sadie: It’s definitely not been as plain sailing as when I was pregnant with Billy.
Does Billy understand he has a baby brother or sister coming? Sadie: He doesn’t understand too much, but when we ask if he wants another brother or sister he says, “Yes.” But at the moment he wants a sister.
How do Elliott Jr and Olivia feel about having another sibling? Sadie: So excited. When we told them, they welled up.
Do you want to have more children? Elliott: I certainly don’t want to be a Bernie Ecclestone [laughs], so I’m happy to crack them out over the next five years, then I’ll have the snip. Sadie: We’d like three or four and with Elliott and Olivia, that’ll be five or six.