TO those closest to them, married couple Jlloyd and Emma Samuel lived the perfect life.
With three healthy children, an array of flash cars and a sprawling countryside mansion – the footballer and his WAG seemed to have it all.
But beneath the surface was an unthinkable truth that Emma only discovered when their 17-year relationship came to an abrupt end.
Jlloyd, a man who she presumed she knew through and through, had a second life she knew absolutely nothing about – and astonishingly, one which included a second wife.
Emma, an interior designer once loved being married to a footballer, a man who was both charming and outgoing.
“He was such a romantic,” Emma recalls.
“We had a real good understanding of what we wanted family life to be like.”
Jlloyd, who grew up in Bow, East London, started his sporting career playing Sunday league football in the same team as Chelsea legend John Terry.
He was signed professionally for the first time to Aston Villa aged 16 – but friends say he “never changed” after making it big.
He soon met Emma in a LOAF, a club in Manchester city centre, in 2001 and was reportedly head-over-heels from their first encounter.
But the early days of their relationship was tainted with lies.
Jlloyd led Emma to believe he was a 23-year-old estate agent, a facade which she believed for the first six months of their relationship.
He eventually came clean, confessing he was in fact a footballer, and he was 19, two years younger than Emma.
Emma, undeterred by the deception, said their attraction was “instant” and they “just clicked” and “got each other”.
When Jlloyd got a shot to play for Aston Villa’s first team in 2002, his salary rocketed to £15,000-a-week – an eye-watering annual salary of £780,000.
“We were buying properties in Manchester, London, Marbella,” Emma recalls.
“It was spend, spend, spend.”
Jlloyd Samuel was born in Trinidad and Tobago but grew up in Bow, East London, where his football talents as a schoolboy were spotted by Charlton.
Aston Villa snatched him from The Valley and he turned professional with the Midlands club where he began his professional career aged 16.
He was married to interior designer Emma Pritchard.
The pair lived at their home in Lymm, Cheshire, with their three children – Javarne, 19, Lakyle, 18, and Amara, 15.
Emma took on the sole care of their children while Jlloyd played in Iran at the end of his career in 2014-15.
Their second son, Lakyle, is following in his father’s footsteps and is pursuing a career in Premier League football. He is currently signed to Manchester City.
Jlloyd proposed on a helicopter on September 4, 2005, a gesture complete with champagne and a photographer.
“We had no worries – we were rich,” she says. “Our kids were gonna be born into a beautiful life.”
By 2007, Emma and Jlloyd had welcomed two young children – Javarne, now 19, and Laykle, now 18.
However, cracks in their idyllic life began to show when defender Jlloyd wasn’t getting much time on the pitch at Aston Villa.
He was betting a lot more than he’d ever done before. It was money we didn’t even have – he was spending so much. It got to the point where he was blowing £13,000 in one day
Emma Samuel
Emma noticed Jlloyd was beginning to bet, both on horses and whilst playing blackjack on his computer.
“He would be up most nights on the slot machines, horses, casinos, cards – on the TV and the laptop,” Emma recalls.
“He was doing it a lot more than he’d ever done it before. It was money we didn’t even have – he was spending so much.
“It got to the point where he was blowing £13,000 in one day.”
Meanwhile, desperate to get off the bench aged just 26, Jlloyd signed for Bolton Wanderers on a £20,000-a-week deal which meant relocating his young family to Cheshire.
They bought a mansion for £1.65 million, complete with a swimming pool, bowling alley and even a nightclub with a ‘stripper’s’ pole.
They soon welcomed their third child, a daughter named Amara, now 15.
The family’s perfect life came crashing down for the first time in 2010 when Jlloyd suffered a serious thigh injury just months before his Bolton Wanderers contract was up.
It took six months for Jlloyd to recover from the surgery.
He was loaned to Cardiff City in the Championship league to prove to Bolton Wanderers that he could still perform on the pitch.
If he couldn’t perform, they wouldn’t renew his contract.
Unfortunately, he was caught boozing at a bar with team mates two nights before the most important game of the Championship.
Cardiff City lost the match and Jlloyd was dropped by Bolton Wanderers.
In Emma’s words, “the wages just stopped”.
The couple’s eye-watering MONTHLY outgoings included a £17,000 mortgage payment, £1,700 gas bill and £1,800 car finance payments on a Range Rover and BMW.
When Jlloyd couldn’t get signed to another club following countless trials, their flash cars got repossessed and Emma’s best friend even had to pay for a food shop for them to feed their three young children.
They lost “over half a million pounds” on the sale of their house in 2011 due to the recession, Emma adds.
In order to support his young family, Jlloyd was forced to move to Iran to play football on a £4,000-a-week salary.
I was trying to grieve my husband, then I found out he’s got a full-on other life for seven years
Emma Samuel
Emma described the move as “heartbreaking” as her and their three children were constantly wondering when they would see their dad next.
After five years in Iran, Jlloyd’s team were relegated and he was out of a contract for the second time.
He returned to the UK in 2016 to live with Emma and the children – the first time they’d lived together in five years.
And the time apart had driven a wedge between the once happily-married couple. Both admitted they’d cheated during their separation but agreed to wipe the slate clean and start again now they were reunited.
It was in May 2018 when Emma’s world came crashing down for the second and final time when two police officers knocked at her door.
Jlloyd, Emma’s partner of almost two decades, was dead.
He’d been killed in a catastrophic fireball when his £100,000 Range Rover collided with a van after dropping the children off at school.
He was 37 – and 2.5 times over the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash.
And an inquest later heard that his injuries were so horrific, he had to be identified through medical records and a DNA sample.
After his death and in the midst of unimaginable pain and suffering, Emma’s life began to unravel as unexpected and shocking truths came to the surface.
Emma and the children had been left with just £2,460.
It also became apparent that Jlloyd had been taking regular lump sums of cash out of the bank to fund “building work” – but no renovations were taking place at the couple’s home.
I threw up everywhere. It was like a stab in the heart
Emma Samuel
Next, just four weeks after Jlloyd’s sudden death came an even bigger bombshell for grieving Emma.
She received a call from a friend to say her husband – a man who she thought she knew inside out – had another wife.
For seven years, Jlloyd had been living a life Emma knew nothing about.
The truth came to light when the other woman “plastered” herself across social media following the footballer’s death.
“I threw up everywhere,” Emma recalls, in a disturbing documentary new to Netflix, The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash.
“I was in shock – I’d met her before. It was like a stab in the heart.
“I was trying to grieve my husband, then I found out he’s got a full-on other life for seven years.”
To deepen her anguish, Emma recognised the woman Jlloyd was said to be married to – the pair had crossed paths during a trip to Dubai when Emma surprised Jlloyd while he was located there for business.
His second wife was a woman called Helia Sahimi Samuel, an Iranian fashion designer.
Jlloyd and Helia had met just three months after his move to Iran in 2011 – and she claims he converted to Islam so they could marry.
They wed in 2013 – and despite Jlloyd already being married to Emma, in the UK, their marriage was valid in Iran under sharia law.
Helia was helping the sacked footballer set up businesses across the world – including hospitals, restaurants and mortgage firms.
She knew he had a wife and children back in England and although she wasn’t happy about it, Helia says she “understood” the situation and “trusted” he would eventually divorce Emma.
When both wives crossed paths, Emma believed Helia was a friend of Jlloyd’s mum and Helia, knowing who Emma was, believed that Jlloyd had asked her for a divorce.
Emma claims that Helia told her to “go home” after she pretended to be a fortune teller who could supposedly see marital issues between the couple.
Emma began to ask herself some huge questions including: “Who is my husband? Do I really know him?”
Following Jlloyd’s death, his furious sister, Leslie-Ann Samuel, and Helia made a bizarre string of accusations on social media that Emma was involved with the crash.
They alleged that he was not at the wheel of the car when it burst into flames and believed Emma was even “faking” his death for insurance fraud.
However, Jlloyd’s life insurance policy would not pay out after his death because he’d been drinking.
Astonishingly, his family and Helia do not believe it was Jlloyd’s body that police identified.
I will speak honestly about the mistress, slander, harassment and threats I had to endure since my loss
Emma Samuel
Leslie-Ann demanded DNA samples to be released to her so she could get them tested independently.
She also questioned where the coroner got charts of his teeth from, and was told they were from his dentist.
Emma granted the independent testing, but Leslie-Ann reportedly failed to collect the sample in the time frame allowed.
In another startling twist, Jlloyd’s family and Helia still believe that he is alive.
Since the passing of her husband, Emma is using her platform on Instagram to discuss the grief she experienced and educate others.
She made a second Instagram account, called @wagtowidow, dedicated to talking about her experiences and empowering others who have been through the same trials.
“I will speak honestly about the mistress, slander, harassment and threats I had to endure since my loss and how you can keep going through a tragic situation,” she wrote.
“My mission is to help and empower other women who have been through similar situations.
“You will smile again.”
