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AS Britain’s first Wag, she once enjoyed a lavish life of champagne, Gucci dresses and nights out with Victoria Beckham.Former model Suzi Walker admits she and her fellow England wives and girlfriends blew money like they were “getting through toilet paper”.
Suzi Walker says she is now half a million in debt and has had to sell her possessionsCredit: Channel 4
Suzi says her life changed when Ian Walker was called up into the England squad – the pair pictured at home in 1997Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
But today she tells how she has been forced to pawn thousands of pounds of cherished jewellery after ending up with £500,000 of debt.
Suzi, 52 — former wife of Spurs goalie Ian Walker and ex-partner of former Crystal ­Palace boss Simon Jordan — told The Sun on Sunday: “Ending up around half a million in debt and not having the money I once had has changed me as a human being.
“I now know more than ever what’s important in life.”
The former Page 3 girl says a costly court case and chronic health ­problems have left her having to sell off belongings.
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Suzi, who married businessman Mark Pitman in 2018, and now lives in Ashtead, Surrey, ­continued: “I pawned and sold everything I could just to keep going.
“Last year it was the engagement ring Mark gave me, which broke my heart, and some diamond earrings and a ring that were gifts from him.
And I also pawned a diamond tennis bracelet worth thousands that Simon gave me.
Cristal champagne
“They were sold for something ridiculous, a couple of thousand, but were worth so much more.
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“I can see people might think when I’ve had such wealthy partners that I’d always have money but I’ve never wanted to lean on anyone. I’ve never married for money.”
Suzi, who divorced Ian in 2007 after he bedded a Las Vegas lap dancer, was threatened with repossession of her £950,000 house just last week because she owes £20,000.
It is money she now doesn’t have.
The debts racked up after she and financier Mark had to shell out more than £600,000 in legal fees two years ago, trying to recoup ­millions that he claimed a company owed him in work fees.
She says they won the case in 2021 but have still not recouped the money.
Suzi, the inspiration for the character Chardonnay in Noughties ITV drama Footballers’ Wives, also spent £60,000 on health bills fighting a chronic illness that went un- diagnosed for years and which she is still convinced will one day kill her.
She said: “I knew I was dying, but I couldn’t get a ­diagnosis from my local hospital. I paid to get private tests.
“I’ve been so ill that I’ve barely been able to look at the post.
“I was ignoring calls from the mortgage company, and the house is in my name.
“It’s about a year’s worth of ­payments — I owe over £20,000 — but I’ve been able to show them GP notes as proof of my ill health and now I have a little more time to find the money.
“It’s amazing my electricity and other things haven’t been cut off.”
Suzi married her current husband Mark Pitman in 2018Credit: Oliver Dixon
Wags used to swap expensive watches and drank only the finest Cristal champagneCredit: Oliver Dixon
It’s all a far cry from her Wag years in the 1990s and 2000s.
She became pals with Coleen Rooney, Alex Gerrard and Victoria Beckham as they saw their husbands Wayne, Steven and David play for England.
She said: “We enjoyed the finest of everything when it was Euro 96.
“We had some amazing times and Coleen, Victoria and Alex were lovely. It was the Wag fairytale.
“But we used to blow money like we were getting through toilet paper.
“We’d spend thousands at Gucci and Prada, drank only the finest Cristal champagne.
“Coleen, Alex and I loved swapping Jacob and Co watches for other styles or Cartier diamond-encrusted ones.
“I can’t remember the prices but they were worth thousands and thousands.”
When Suzi got engaged to Ian in 1994 he was playing for Tottenham and she was an aspiring model.
They went on to have daughter Sophie, now 24.
Suzi said: “We weren’t rich then. I bought the engagement ring for about 20 quid from the department store Allders.
“We rented our TV. Our ­relationship was not about money.
“But when Ian got into the England team it became a different life.
“He bought me a beautiful, pear-shaped diamond — God knows how much that cost.
“I didn’t think about money. I’d get blow-dries to my hair every week. I had Botox. I would spend thousands every month on clothes.
“I had fake tan, I had my boobs made bigger, smaller, then bigger again — I can’t even remember how many I had but I think they cost about £8,000 each time.
“We flew first-class. I’d spend thousands having floral arrangements in our house at Christmas.
“Ian gave me these amazing Cartier love bangle bracelets which were worth at least £10,000. I had a tennis diamond ankle chain.
“I’d have a personal shopper at Selfridges. It seems crazy but it is just the life you got used to.
“A pal joked we’d change cars more times than he’d change his underwear.”
Suzi describes Ian as a “wonderful” dad and is adamant she would never turn to him for cash, despite the situation she is in.
She said: “When I divorced him I got about £800,000. I put that towards a new home and getting my daughter into the best school.
“I never went after him financially for more because I’m just not one of those greedy money people.”
Suzi fell for then Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan and share a daughter togetherCredit: Oliver Dixon
Not long afterwards, in 2007, Suzi fell for an even wealthier man in Simon Jordan.
She said: “Simon would spend £50,000 on fine wines.
He had a limo driver who would take me to Dior. It was on a different level.
“One night at the Grosvenor House Hotel he got me a vodka and tonic.
Set in the ice in the drink was a diamond necklace. I was blown away.
We were so in love and I knew he wanted a child.
So my gift back to him was to present him with my contraceptive coil to say: ‘I am happy to try’.
“Another time there was a new Range Rover waiting for me outside the Grosvenor.
“One night we went for dinner and he really wanted me to have a starter. When it arrived there was a diamond bracelet on the plate.”
‘I think I’m going to die’
The couple split in 2008 and Simon is paying maintenance for their daughter Cameron, now 15.
Suzi has been plagued by ill health for years and nearly died giving birth to Sophie.
Then she was diagnosed with ME, which she now believes was a misdiagnosis.
Suzi has struggled with ill health in recent years and been in and out of hospitalCredit: Oliver Dixon
She said: “I’ve had decades of ill health but I think the stress of the 2021 court case made it worse.
“Last October my face swelled up so I was unrecognisable. I kept falling unconscious.
“I was getting lesions and bruises all over my legs and knuckles. I called dozen of ­ambulances because I felt so ill.
“They’d say it was mental heath problems. Even Mark didn’t believe I was physically ill at one point, which really hurt.
“There was a point last year I said to my mum, ‘I think I’m going to die’. And I just didn’t want to live any more.”
Finally, earlier this year at the private Levitas Clinic in Guildford, Surrey, tests revealed Suzi has a rare and chronic variant of Lyme disease — the bacterial infection caused by ticks — called babesiosis.
She said: “Getting a diagnosis was such a relief and I am speaking out to try to help others who may feel in the same situation. It has been absolutely dreadful.”
The condition has led to Suzi suffering a host of other illnesses, including meningitis, brain inflammation and discharge behind her eyes.
She says: “The clinic has literally saved my life because I was put straight on to some very strong drugs to help reduce the inflammation in my brain and body, and I was on IV drips daily. I’ve no idea how it got this chronic.
“I don’t remember being bitten by a tick but it may have been decades ago.
“Lately I’ve felt worse and there is no cure. I feel so ill I said to my mum recently, ‘I’ll be amazed if I’m alive by the end of this year’.
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“I still feel unwell and the money worries don’t help. But if this has taught me anything, it’s that money isn’t the most important thing.
“I don’t know what the future holds. I just want my health back.”
Suzi has been forced to sell off her jewellery to attempt to pay off her debtsCredit: Oliver Dixon More