The path to true love never does run smoothly, as former couple Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger know all too well.
Once upon a time they were golden couple of reality TV, with their relationship serving as the focal point for what could arguably be the best years of hit reality show The Only Way Is Essex.
But twelve years after ending their ten year relationship, the pair are at vastly different points in their personal and professional lives, with Mark recently confirming wife Michelle Keegan’s first pregnancy.
Meanwhile Lauren has already adjusted to parenthood, having welcomed daughter Larose with partner Charles Drury in 2021.
During their tumultuous relationship, Mark was portrayed as a serial womaniser following flings with co-stars Sam Faiers and Lucy Mecklenburgh.
His antics would lead to a series of fiery encounters, with close to 1.5 million viewers tuning in at the show’s peak to watch the relationship go through its death throes before coming to a permanent end in 2012.
Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger were the golden couple of reality TV during their time on The Only Way Is Essex, but their relationship came to a permanent end in 2012
Twelve years after ending their relationship, the pair are at vastly different points in their personal lives, with Mark recently confirming wife Michelle Keegan ‘s first pregnancy
Meanwhile Lauren has already adjusted to parenthood, having welcomed daughter Larose with partner Charles Drury in 2021
Who could forget the iconic series two finale, which took an explosive turn when Mark riled his former girlfriend by failing to invite her to his house party, fearing she might make guests feel uncomfortable.
The decision led to inevitable fireworks, with Lauren gatecrashing the party and pushing her former boyfriend into his outdoor pool after a testy confrontation.
Mark and Lauren even got engaged on the show – only for Mark to call things off five months later – and there has been bad blood between the pair ever since.
Lauren later claimed the ‘love’ she shared with her former boyfriend ‘never went away’ and admitted she was ‘proud’ of how Mark had furthered himself from reality star to TV presenter.
Speaking to Married At First Sight UK star Paul Brunson on his new podcast We Need To Talk in September, she said: ‘I never ever thought I was going to love anyone else. I was with him for twelve 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.
‘And obviously I’ve been through a lot with him and everyone said to me, “Lauren, he was obsessed with you.”
Mark developed a reputation as a serial womaniser on TOWIE and would have flings with a number of costars, among them Lucy Mecklenburgh and Sam Faeirs
The TV personality with co-star Sam Faiers in a 2011 episode of the hit ITV1 show
Who could forget the iconic series two finale, which took an explosive turn when Mark riled Lauren by failing to invite her to his house party – resulting in her pushing him into his own outdoor pool
The TV personality was humiliated, but it didn’t stop the couple announcing what would ultimately be a short lived engagement
Mark sparked romance rumours with n DJ Emily Scott while appearing alongside her on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2011
But he dismissed the possibility of anything more than a platonic relationship with his former campmate shortly after leaving the jungle
‘We’d have the same jealousy. We’d have the same, like, tit for tat, making them jealous, getting back together. He couldn’t be without me and I couldn’t be without him.’
Lauren started dating Mark when they were teenagers, before they found fame on ITVBe reality series The Only Way Is Essex.
Last year, he fronted his own show on the BBC, A Wright Family Holiday, while his wife Michelle topped the Netflix global charts with her starring role in thriller Fool Me Once back in January.
But Lauren believes Mark’s destiny could have been different had they stuck by each other through the height of their reality star fame.
She admitted: ‘It did go, obviously a little bit toxic at times, but not as bad as what I’ve experienced later in life.
‘Yes, we went through some, what would you call it, like, hard times where there were things that went wrong. But we were kids at one point. That was part of growing. We could have made it if we had gotten older and worked on certain things and maybe had a bit of help.’
Lauren suffered a devastating miscarriage in 2013 after falling pregnant during a three year relationship with Jake McLean
The TV personality was pictured hand-in-hand with presenter Zoe Hardman, a colleague on ITV show Take Me Out: The Gossip, in 2012 (L), while ex Lauren dated Jake McLean (R)
Zoe later confirmed she had a connection to her co-host, but insisted she was still single – despite their evident attraction to one another (pictured together in January 2012)
Following the collapse of his relationship with Lauren, Mark was romantically linked to a string of women before meeting Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan.
He’d already sparked romance rumours with n DJ Emily Scott while appearing alongside her on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2011.
But he dismissed the possibility of anything more than a platonic relationship with his former campmate shortly after leaving the jungle.
He told The Sun: ‘Emily is a lovely person and a very pretty girl but there is no romantic interest there for me and I am not interested in starting a relationship with her.
‘When you are in the jungle you have a bit of a friendly flirt but that is as far as it went. I am single and want to be on my own. I won’t deny she is a good catch but that is not how I feel about her.’
He also admitted his time on the show had confirmed there was no future with Lauren.
‘The jungle has helped me get over Lauren,’ he added.
‘That is behind me and in the past. She is a special person in my life but right now I want to be on my own. I am looking forward to the future.’
In 2022, Jake was killed in a road accident after losing control of his Mercedes E-class (pictured) while driving under the influence in Bodrum, Turkey
A source told The Sun: ‘Lauren was his only serious long-term relationship. They travelled the world together and experienced a lot of life together. She is absolutely devastated as she loved him and will always have love for him’
Alarm bells went off when Lauren embarked on a a new relationship with convict Joey Morrison in 2016
By 2020 she was involved in another romance, this time with Charles Drury – a builder who once dated former glamour model Katie Price
Months before confirming his romance with Michelle, the TV personality was pictured hand-in-hand with presenter Zoe Hardman, a colleague on ITV show Take Me Out: The Gossip.
Zoe later confirmed she had a connection to her co-host, but insisted she was still single – despite their evident attraction to one another.
‘The chemistry between us is wonderful and we really get one another,’ she said in 2012. I speak to him every day. He’s really lovely and I can see why women fancy him.
‘He is charming, he looks great and he is a gorgeous person,’ she added. ‘I am sadly single. But the right person will come along when the time is right and I am happy.’
Mark was also linked with former Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts after crossing paths After meeting at an I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! wrap party on ‘s Gold Coast.
The TV personality had flown to in 2012 for an appearance on its ITV2 spin-off show, where he openly admitted to having the hots for the Pussycat Doll.
In the bar of the Palazzo Versace hotel, sources spotted the pair downing cocktails – and shots – before being joined by a number of other celebrities from the show.
The couple would split in 2021, just four months after welcoming their daughter Larose, before reuniting weeks later
There would be heartbreak for Lauren when their second child, daughter Lorena passed away in 2011 just minutes after she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck
However, when everyone else decided it was time to go to bed; they opted to carry on partying at a local hotel.
Despite his notorious reputation, Mark was soon tamed when he met Michelle that December, with the couple eventually marrying in 2015 at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds.
But the ceremony might never have happened at all had Michelle, 37, heeded her own comments about her TV personality husband.
In a section from her 2011 Love It! magazine column – titled ‘Tut Tut, Mark’ – the then 24-year old star aired some less than complimentary views about her future husband and his stop-start relationship with The Only Way Is Essex co-star Lauren Goodger.
She wrote: ‘I love TOWIE! It’s one of those shows you don’t want to watch, but just can’t help turning on. I don’t know how Lauren can take Mark back so easily, though – it’s so cringe!
‘I wouldn’t’ be able to get back with someone who’d slept with lots of girls I knew, but that’s just me.’
The actress will welcome her first child with Mark next year, having confirmed her pregnancy in an Instagram post on December 27.
And Lauren is said to be ‘super anxious’ that she may bump into happy couple Mark and Michelle, as they both live near one another in Essex.
A source told The Sun: ‘The news has been a huge blow to Lauren and she is devastated, especially as she’s not had a great Christmas, so it’s the icing on the cake.
‘It’s hit her hard, Mark’s building his perfect family and she’s being left behind.’
Lauren, who is no longer will Lorena’s father Charles (pictured left), was also going through a break-up with him at the time of her death
Lauren gave birth to her second daughter in July 2022 but she passed away just minutes after she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (recent stock image)
Now focused on raising infant daughter Larose, Lauren’s own personal life suffered its fair share of turbulence before she became a mother.
Indeed, the TV personality suffered a devastating miscarriage in 2013 while competing on talent show Dancing On Ice, after falling pregnant during a three year relationship with Jake McLean.
Speaking to Channel 5’s In Therapy in 2017, she said: ‘I was on a TV show that was quite intense. I had to try and perform when I was quite far gone. It didn’t last.’
She added: ‘I’m the type of person who, when something happens, I move on. That’s how I am. It’s not something I addressed.’
Lauren confirmed her four year romance had come to an end in 2016 and later admitted the relationship had been “toxic.”
She told OK!: ‘My last relationship [with Mark Wright] was toxic and I jumped straight into a relationship with Jake and that turned out to be toxic too.’
In 2022, Jake was killed in a road accident after losing control of his Mercedes E-class while driving under the influence in Bodrum, Turkey.
It was later revealed that Jake, whose girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou was sat in the passenger’s seat, despite being three times over the drink-drive limit and under the influence of cocaine.
A subsequent inquest into his death revealed he died of ‘traumatic head injuries’ at the scene.
A source told The Sun: ‘Lauren was his only serious long-term relationship. They travelled the world together and experienced a lot of life together.
‘She is absolutely devastated as she loved him and will always have love for him.’
Lauren has been single for the past two years after she accused ex-Charles of assaulting her on the day of their second child’s funeral
Speaking in a candid interview with Paul C Brunson on his We Need To Talk podcast, Lauren detailed the struggles she’s end as she goes through life with just her two-year-old daughter
Alarm bells went off when Lauren embarked on a a new relationship with convict Joey Morrison in 2016.
She later attempted to justify the romance during her interview with In Therapy.
‘This is the weirdest relationship ever, but it’s exciting and I think that’s why I like it,’ she explained. ‘A bad boy never cheats, a bad boy is very loyal.
‘They’re strong family men, they’ve just got a bit of a naughty side to them.’
Those words came back to haunt her in 2018, when she discovered Joey had been sending x-rated images to a string of other women from his prison cell.
By 2020 she was involved in another romance, this time with Charles Drury – a builder who once dated former glamour model Katie Price.
The couple would split in 2021, just four months after welcoming their daughter Larose, before reuniting weeks later.
But there would be heartbreak for Lauren when their second child, daughter Lorena passed away in 2011 just minutes after she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
Lauren elected to have a home birth after falling pregnant with her second child with her then-partner Charles Drury, who is also dad to her daughter Larose, three.
Mark started dating Michelle in 2012, with the couple exchanging vows three years later
When her waters broke, Lauren contacted her doula and midwife who both told her to stay at home where she could have her planned water birth.
Lauren recalled during an interview with The Guardian that the nurses told her she would be ‘better off’ at home because in hospital there was a risk of infection.
The reality TV personality was checked over by the midwife that evening, where she was told Lorena’s heartbeat was normal but a day later she was still not in labour.
Women should be offered a labour induction if it does not begin within the first 24 hours after their waters break and advised to go to hospital, nice guidelines state.
Lauren said she was advised to go into hospital but was ultimately told that it was her decision to make, so she stayed at home for another day.
Later that day the midwife checked Lorena’s heartbeat again, which was normal.
The following day, Lauren’s contractions finally began but when the midwife returned she sadly could not find the unborn baby’s heartbeat and Lauren was rushed to emergency care.
Recalling her experience outside the hospital, Lauren said: ‘Lorena’s ‘head was literally hanging out … No one was expecting me. They were all looking at me. My partner was screaming: ‘Can you just put her in a room?’
Lauren is pictured with former partner Charles and their daughter Larose, who they co-parent
Recounting her two-hour labour, Lauren said: ‘Ten doctors come in to try and save her, give her the adrenaline, and everything, and it was too late.’ She was later told that if Lorena had been delivered roughly seven hours earlier, she’d have lived.
She said: ‘I wish I was checked more or I’d gone in on the second day and got checked on a monitor. But I can’t change what’s happened. And you don’t think that’s going to happen.’
Lauren has been single for the past two years after she accused ex-Charles of assaulting her on the day of their daughter’s funeral.
The builder was charged with assault and engaging in ‘coercive’ and ‘controlling’ behaviour, according to the Metropolitan Police.
He appeared at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on June 14 and has been bailed ahead of appearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on July 12. He reportedly pleaded not guilty to the two charges.
According to The Sun, Charles was charged with coercive behaviour, including ‘taking her car keys and hiding them’, and ‘assaulting her over the course of their relationship’.
A statement released by the Metropolitan Police at the time confirmed: ‘A man has appeared in court charged with offences linked to an incident in Upminster.
‘Charles Drury – 25 (25.06.97) of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire appeared at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 14 June charged with assault (ABH) and engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour.
‘He was bailed to next appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 12 July.
‘The charges relate to an incident police were called to in Upminster on 4 August 2022. A woman aged in her 30s was treated for facial injuries.’
Charles was charged with inflicting actual bodily harm on Lauren but was cleared of the assault after she withdrew her support for the prosecution.
Following many years of trauma, Lauren, who returned to TOWIE earlier this year, now seeks relief in the gym.
The star says, like an orchestrated scene from the reality series, she regularly bumps into Mark during her workouts but they don’t speak a word to each other.
Lauren revealed: ‘We do see each other, but we don’t speak at all. It’s very, very strange. I would happily say hello, but if I’m not wanted somewhere, I shut off.
‘We go to the same gym and stuff, and we don’t live far from each other. I’ve stood next to him in a queue before at the gym and it is awkward.
‘Obviously, he’s moved on with his life. He’s got to respect that. And I respect that. But I would love to say, “Hey, how are you? Like, all good”, but it’s never happened.
‘We don’t speak at all. We would never speak now because his life has progressed so much and I have to respect that and he respects his partner and his new life and whatever.’
Lauren Goodger’s romance history
Mark Wright: 2003-2011
Lauren found fame on The Only Way Is Essex while in an on-off, eight and a half-year relationship with ex-fiancé Mark Wright.
First love: Lauren and Mark pictured in 2011
Their tumultuous relationship was filled with infidelity on Mark’s part, trust issues, and tensions between Lauren and his family.
The couple cut off their engagement in May 2011, just five months after his proposal, and the presenter went on to marry actress Michelle Keegan, 33, in 2015.
Lauren later revealed she had an abortion at the age of 20 after the couple decided they weren’t ready to become parents.
She told OK! in 2011: ‘I did think I was pregnant. I’m not on the pill and haven’t been for a little while, just because of my cells, not because I was planning a baby and thank God we didn’t.
‘I was late once and I think it was the stress of what was going on. I’ve been pregnant before with his baby but I chose not to have it. I was only 20. No one knows except my close family.’
Jake McLean: 2012-2016
After splitting from Mark, the media personality dated Jake McLean, 33, on and off for four years – from 2012 until May 2016 – with Lauren suffering a miscarriage during their relationship
Jailbird ex: The influencer pictured with Jake in 2013
The TV star discovered she had lost the unborn child while appearing as a contestant on ITV talent show Dancing On Ice in 2013, and later admitted she has little choice but to ‘carry on.’
Discussing the loss on Channel 5 show In Therapy in 2017, she said: ‘I was on a TV show that was quite intense. I had to try and perform when I was quite far gone. It didn’t last.’
Lauren and Jake split for the first time later that year before rekindling their romance in 2015.
Shortly after their final split in May 2016, Lauren told OK! of her former jailbird ex: ‘I fell out of love with him. I know some people say you wake up one day and things click, but that didn’t happen to me; it was a gradual thing.
‘The relationship was quite hard. I felt like I was the one doing everything and putting the effort in. I’m at the age where I’d like to have children but Jake isn’t the sort of man I’d want to do it with.’
Jake was jailed for three-and-a-half years after conning his way into a mother’s house two days before Christmas in 2006, overpowering her before a masked gang ran in and raided the family home.
In July 2022, Jake died at the age of 33 in a car crash in Turkey where he was holidaying with his TOWIE star girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou.
JOEY MORRISION: 2016-2018
The TV star struck up a relationship with another convict, Joey Morrison, but the couple went their separate ways two years later, in 2018, despite Lauren waiting for him while he served time behind bars.
Bad boy: The TV star and convict Joey pictured in 2017
Joey, 31, was given a 16-year prison sentence for a violent offence but was released after nine years – Lauren and Joey split close to his release date.
In 2019, Lauren opened up about her two year romance with Joey, who was sentenced for drug related crimes, saying: ‘My ex was my biggest mistake. I wasted two years when I could have been dating. I wish I hadn’t waited for him to come out.’
Writing previously in new! magazine of her relationship with Joey, she said: ‘I regret giving two and a half years of my life to someone who was in jail only for him to come out and not be what I thought.
‘I thought we were going to get a house, get married and have kids. I regret the time I’ve wasted.’
Charles Drury: 2020-2022
In October 2020, Lauren teased she was dating a mystery man, who was soon to be identified as Charles Drury, 23.
Inseparable: Lauren and Charles pictured in 2020
The amateur footballer and builder littered his social media account with images of his girlfriend.
Sharing his thoughts on their romance, Charles previously gushed: ‘The story of you & me is my favourite because it’s happening so naturally.’
The couple announced they were expecting their first child together, Larose, just three months after going public with their relationship.
They went on to have a second baby, with Loran announcing she was pregnant in January 2022.
Lorena passed away shortly after her birth in June 2022 after 10 doctors fought to save her life when she was born with two knots in her umbilical cord, tied around her neck.
Lauren’s partner has a history of dating older women, having previously enjoyed a brief fling with former glamour model Katie Price, 42, in 2019.
While the pair first split in November 2021 amid claims he was cheating, they reunited in early in 2022 after Lauren fell pregnant but they went their separate ways soon after.
Lauren was allegedly assaulted on the day of her baby’s funeral. Charles was later arrested and bailed following the incident.