THE widow of a former Premier League star has revealed the footballer led a secret double life and married another woman.
Jlloyd Samuel, who died in 2018 at the age of 37 after his Range Rover collided with a van after he had dropped his kids off at school, is profiled in a new documentary on Netflix which launched this week.
The show, called ‘The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash’, was first screened by ITV in 2022, and tells the story of how Samuel is said to have led a double life.
In the 2000s, Samuel played in the Premier League for Aston Villa and Bolton before heading to Iran.
Appearing in the programme is his first wife Emma Pritchard who says that Samuel had “another life” in the Middle Eastern country with a second wife, who he married in 2013, having converted to Islam for her.
She said: “I was trying to grieve my husband and find he has another life. Who is my husband – do I really know him?”
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The two women even met while Pritchard was on a trip to Dubai, but the second wife introduced herself as a fortune teller.
The second wife turned out to be a singer, Helia Sahimi, who once referred to Samuel as “the best husband I could have ever asked for”.
Pritchard, who is mum to Samuel’s three kids, was said to have been in shock after she learned of the relationship, which he maintained until he died.
Pritchard said: “About four weeks after Jlloyd’s death, my friend said I’ve got something to tell you.
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“Jlloyd’s got another wife, another woman, and she’s just plastered herself all over his Instagram as his wife. I threw up everywhere. I said let me see the Instagram and I looked and said ‘oh my god’.”
She described the discovery about their relationship as a “stab in the heart”.
Pritchard admitted she was “obsessed” with the Instagram account of her husband’s secret wife.
She said: “There were even shots of Jlloyd that he’d sent to me on trips to Africa, with crocodiles and then I’d see another picture on Helia’s of her with Jloyd in Africa with the crocodiles.
“It was like a stab in the heart. I’m trying to grieve for my husband and then I find out he’s got a full-on other life for seven years. Never ever has he asked me for a divorce.
“As far as I was concerned we were fine, we were great. The night before he passed away he was swinging me around the kitchen telling me how much he loved me.”
Later, Samuel’s sister Leslie-Ann accused Pritchard of faking the former player’s death, even though a coroner ruled the body belonged to the footballer.
A 2019 inquest heard that Samuel was more than twice the drink-driving limit when he died.
Sahimi, speaking in the documentary, says she believes Samuel is “still alive”.
Jlloyd Samuel’s playing career
As a youngster, he played for Sunday League side Senrab and supported Manchester United.
The former Trinidad and Tobago international began his career in Charlton’s academy before penning a professional deal with Aston Villa.
He made almost 200 appearances for the Villans before signing a four-year deal with Bolton in 2007.
Samuel then spent stints with Cardiff City and Leeds United before ending his playing career in Iran.
Samuel was born in Trinidad and Tobago but grew up in South East London.
He was selected by the Three Lions in 2004 after featuring for the U21 squad.
But he later opted to play for the country of his birth, where he went on to make his debut in 2009.
Pritchard uses her Instagram account @wagtowidow to detail her grief in the wake of her husband’s death.
The couple had three children together – Javarne, Lakyle, and Amara.
Lakyle is a footballer who plays for Manchester City.
The documentary has picked up praise from viewers on social media.
One user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: “That Jlloyd Samuel Netflix documentary was wild!”
Another said: “Jlloyd Samuel is no longer here to answer the many questions.. it’s a crazy situation.”
A third posted: “This Jlloyd Samuel documentary on Netflix quickly gets bizarre and then just gets even more bizarre.”
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While a fourth added: “Has anyone seen the Jlloyd Samuel doc on Netflix? What an utterly mental double life he was leading. Tragic ending but crikey if it was a Hollywood script it would be considered far-fetched.”
The Footballer, His Wife, and the Crash is available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
