How Sam and Billie Faiers eclipsed ‘sinister' family life rife with abuse, drugs, guns and prison and family secrets
EVERY family has its secrets - the skeletons in the closet they don't want to ever let out.
And multi-millionaire reality TV star sisters Sam and Billie Faiers, who rose to fame on The Only Way Is Essex, are no different.
15
15
15
15
While the siblings have forged out impressive careers in the spotlight after years of hard-work - with Billie, 35, worth an estimated £4M and younger sister Sam, 34, a whopping £9M - their family has been shrouded in controversy.
Over the last 15 years, many of The Sun's showbiz journalists have interviewed the sisters countless times.
They are always very professional, extremely driven, down-to-earth and chatty which makes them a lovely interview.
But there's always one topic which is strictly off limits with journalists when they're eagerly promoting their wholesome mummy brands, or starring on their popular TV show The Mummy Diaries.
And that is the criminal legacy of both their violent biological father Lee Faiers, and their stepdad, Dave Chatwood.
If you dig deep enough you find an East End family tree, rooted in abuse, drugs, guns, crime and prison time, the details of which would be better suited to an ITV drama than an episode of the Mummy Diaries.
The closest either sister got to revealing the full tale was in Sam's autobiography.
She said of her biological father, Lee: "He became volatile and awful to live with."
The star also addressed stepdad Dave's criminal past, writing: "Dave was convicted for possessing large quantities of drugs and firearms."
And there's a line on how the star was affected by it all, which reads: "The trauma from her father's abuse and the subsequent family turmoil had a significant impact on Sam's mental health."
Mummy Diaries spoilers - Sam and Billie Faiers furious as their step dad admits to drinking an entire bottle of wine before getting chucked off flight before wedding
But according to insiders, her book, Secrets & Lies: The Truth Behind The Headlines, barely touched the surface.
A source said: "The real truth about the Faiers' family history is still very much OFF the table.
"It is something they really avoid talking about publicly at all costs.
'They have made a pact that somethings are too private and personal to ever be put out for public consumption.'
15
15
15
Sam was just 19 when she shot to fame on the brand new scripted reality show TOWIE back in 2010.
But while Sam and older sister Billie were becoming TV stars alongside Amy Childs, 34, Gemma Collins, 44, and Mark Wright, 38, their biological father, Lee Faiers, was hitting the headlines for darker reasons.
In 2011, just as their TOWIE fame was peaking, Lee was convicted of assaulting his partner June Simmons.
He was given a community service order and told to attend a domestic violence programme.
Domestic abuse - how to get help
DOMESTIC abuse can affect anyone - including men - and does not always involve physical violence.
Here are some signs that you could be in an abusive relationship:
Emotional abuse - Including being belittled, blamed for the abuse - gaslighting - being isolated from family and friends, having no control over your finances, what you where and who you speak to
Threats and intimidation - Some partners might threaten to kill or hurt you, destroy your belongings, stalk or harass you
Physical abuse - This can range from slapping or hitting to being shoved over, choked or bitten.
Sexual abuse - Being touched in a way you do not want to be touched, hurt during sex, pressured into sex or forced to have sex when you do not consent.
If any of the above apply to you or a friend, you can call these numbers:
The Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247 for free at any time, day or night
Men who are being abused can call Respect Men's Advice Line on 0808 8010 327 or ManKind on 0182 3334 244
Those who identify as LGBT+ can ring Galop on 0800 999 5428
If you are in immediate danger or fear for your life, always ring 999
Remember, you are not alone.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic abuse over the course of their lifetime.
Every 30 seconds the police receive a call for help relating to domestic abuse.
'They have made a pack that somethings are too private and personal to ever be put out for public consumption.'
Sources close to the sisters at the time said: 'They are ashamed of him and they think he has behaved appallingly but he is not a part of their life.'
Later it was revealed brave mum Suzanna Wells, 56, had walked out on Lee when Sam was just two-years-old, after becoming a victim of domestic violence.
The sisters - who have been a huge support to their mum - have had little contact with Lee since.
Opening up in her autobiography Sam revealed Lee "half strangled our mum and beat her up so badly she had to go to hospital".
But while dad Lee was very publicly disowned, stepdad Dave has remained very much a part of the family despite his criminal past.
When Billie was 12 and Sam 11, Dave was jailed for 12 years over drug supply and firearms offences, leaving Suzie to bring up the girls alone.
Police caught him with 140,000 ecstasy tablets, 130 kilograms of cannabis, and two pistols, with ammunition.
Then in 2012, Sam sat in court, alongside then boyfriend Joey Essex, to see Dave sentenced to four years for his part in £1.1 million bullion robbery.
Opening up about Dave's life of crime in her book, Sam said: "We even had to spend five years in Spain sort of hiding out with him."
Sam had to acknowledge both men's dodgy pasts in her supposedly 'tell-all' book.
But it's not the only controversy surrounding the celebrity sisters.
Night club attack
Just a couple of weeks before the court case, Sam and Billie, then aged 21 and 20, were attacked by a girl gang in a night club, and rushed to hospital for brain scans.
Sam needed a brain scan after two attacks on the same night in 2011 during which she was brutally punched and kicked unconscious.
Showing The Sun two black eyes, a split nose, lumps and bruises and scratches down her back, she recalled at the time: 'I really thought I was going to die.
'They just came at me like a herd of elephants.
'It's just a blur. I was being so violently attacked by so many girls there was nothing I could do but curl up into a ball. Then I passed out.'
15
15
We told how the beauties were first set on when they went to a nightclub early on a Sunday.
The pair were kicked, stamped on with high heels and clawed by the wild-eyed thugs.
Billie said: 'I was surrounded by at least ten girls on the dance floor. Sam was nearby. Then, in a split second, I'm on the ground and there is blood coming out of my leg.
'I had been hit with a glass or a bottle.'
Sam was also knocked to the ground at the Jet Black club in central London. The violent assault continued outside as crowds gathered to watch.
Billie was repeatedly beaten to the ground.
She went on to say at the time: 'I was in shock. They were calling me a slag. I kept screaming, 'Why, why', but they wouldn't stop.
'They were punching me and hitting me with their high heels when I was on the ground. They pulled my hair and dragged me along the street.'
Her £1,500 Mulberry handbag was taken in the attack — containing her house keys and mobile phone. She also lost a bracelet, earrings and her shoes.
'I was surrounded by at least ten girls on the dance floor. Sam was nearby. Then, in a split second, I'm on the ground and there is blood coming out of my leg."
Billie Faiers
But a source said: 'Sam and Billie's family history has always been somewhat of a black cloud hanging over their too good to be true family image.
"There's a lot more family secrets they could have talked about but they never will.
"It is a PR nightmare for the sisters' image.
"Some reality stars would want to cash in on their family's criminal past but both sisters would prefer it was never mentioned again."
While neither Billie, Sam or mum Suzie has ever been involved in anything illegal themselves, the Faiers' family name has long had rumoured links to former East End gangs, which much of Essex is infamously built on.
Insiders claim it's inevitable their early family life will have been touched by the criminal dealings of their family in some way.
'People forget Sam and Billie didn't grow up in a life of luxury,' one insider told The Sun Online.
'There were tough times. There were people around them who made money in all sorts of ways.
'Their troubled childhood resulted in both sisters' being determined to build a better future for their own kids.'
Sam is now engaged to property developer Paul Knightley, 36.
The pair met in 2014 and have three children; Paul Jr., Rosie, and baby Edward.
While Paul is notoriously private and often refused to film for The Mummy Diaries, he's played a steady role in Sam's life.
Fans have often criticised his grumpy on-screen manner and traditional views, but Sam has always stood by her man.
Despite never marrying, the couple live a quiet family life in Hertfordshire — with frequent breaks to Dubai, the Maldives and Mallorca.
Billie, on the other hand, is married to long-term partner Greg Shepherd, 40.
"There's a lot more family secrets they could have talked about but they never will."
Greg became a reality star in his own right, often stealing scenes in The Mummy Diaries with his dad-jokes.
They tied the knot in a lavish Maldives wedding in 2019.
Biological dad Lee was noticeably absent, with the girls staying estranged from him since he and their mother Suzie split.
Billie was instead walked down the aisle by step-dad Dave, who is also now separated from their mum.
The married couple also have three children; Nelly, Arthur and baby Margot.
They recently moved into a sprawling £1.4million mansion.
Both their lives are now a far cry from their troubled beginnings.
15
15
15
15
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter: from Disney to festival headliners
Eight days apart, at the British Summer Time stage in Hyde Park, in front of a crowd of 65,000, two glittering, platinum pop titans will perform. First up, next Friday, is Olivia Rodrigo: 22 years old, 46 million monthly listeners on Spotify; 14 Grammy nominations; three wins; and about to headline Glastonbury. Then, on July 5 and 6, Sabrina Carpenter: 26 years old, 70 million monthly listeners on Spotify; six Grammy nominations; two wins; her song Espresso the biggest single of 2024 by a female artist. The pair have often been depicted as bitter rivals: two Disney Channel alumni whose overlapping journeys to superstardom were powered partly by lyrics that may, or may not, have been written about the same ex-boyfriend. But really, they are both lessons in how to pull off the Disney breakaway — what happens when young women wriggle out of their contracts and embrace their new freedom by singing about the brutality and reality of modern girlhood, its shattering heartbreaks and the fun of the rebound. One of the things that marks both of them out is the obsessiveness with which their fans pore over their songs and image-making, whether it's Rodrigo last week being accused on social media of ordering a Nashville music venue to take down Taylor Swift imagery before she filmed there — it was actually removed by the venue for legal reasons — or Carpenter sending the internet into meltdown with the suggestive cover art for her new album, Man's Best Friend. Rodrigo grew up in Temacula, California, a theatre kid in a family who did other things — her mother a teacher, her father a therapist. After various singing competitions and school productions, she was made the lead in the American Girl doll franchise movie at 12 years old and, the following year, cast in Disney's Bizaardvark and then High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a mockumentary. Rodrigo was homeschooled, studying for her exams on set. 'Like, 'Oh shit, I worked my whole childhood and I'm never going to get it back,'' she told The Guardian in 2023. 'I didn't go to football games, I didn't have this group of girlfriends that I hung out with after school. That's kind of sad.' After a song she wrote for the High School Musical show went viral, Rodrigo sought a record deal, choosing not to make music for Disney's in-house label. She went with Interscope/Geffen. Disney allowed her to break her contract before the show's fourth series and, during the pandemic, Rodrigo sat down to write. In 2021 her song Drivers License went stratospheric, breaking a Spotify record as the first song to hit 80 million streams in seven days. The track reached No 1 in 48 countries on Apple Music, 31 countries on Spotify and 14 countries on YouTube. 'It's been the absolute craziest week of my life,' she said in an interview. 'My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant.' Four months later she released her debut album, Sour, a pop-punk triumph about her teenage heartbreak, the songs searing and seething with anger, underwritten by longing and ache — all written by a 17-year-old, with her producer, Dan Nigro. Though she stretched her legs in the ballads, it was her stroppy, plucky rock which was particularly satisfying. Critics, with some arch surprise that it had come from a squeaky-clean Disney-kid, gave the album rave reviews. At Glastonbury 2022 she brought on Lily Allen to sing Allen's 2009 banger F*** You, dedicating it to the Supreme Court justices who had just overturned the Roe v Wade abortion ruling in the United States. 'I'm devastated and terrified, and so many women and so many girls are going to die because of this,' Rodrigo said on stage, having spent hours memorising her speech. As well as being a great song with crushing lyrics, it created a perfect storm of gossip and intrigue. 'And you're probably with that blonde girl,' she sang, 'who always made me doubt — she's so much older than me.' Fans were convinced she was singing about her former Disney co-star Joshua Bassett, with whom they thought she had a romantic relationship. The 'blonde girl', they suspected, was Sabrina Carpenter, who was rumoured to have dated Bassett the next summer. 'I put it out not knowing that it would get that reaction, so it was really strange [when] it did,' Rodrigo told Variety. 'I just remember [everyone being] so weird and speculative about stuff they had no idea about.' She also said she and Carpenter had only met 'once or twice in passing'. 'So I don't think I could write a song that was meaningful or emotional about somebody that I don't know.' In January 2021, two weeks after Drivers License blew up, Carpenter released Skin. 'Maybe 'blonde' was the only rhyme,' went the lyrics. 'You been telling your side, so I'll be telling mine.' She, like Rodrigo, was not drawn on specifics. 'The song isn't calling out one single person,' she wrote on Instagram. 'Some lines address a specific situation, while other lines address plenty of other experiences I've had this past year.' The internet whirled, creating soap opera plots around them. They both later said they received a barrage of death threats. Bassett told People magazine that he received so much hate that he was taken to hospital, diagnosed with septic shock. 'I have a right to stand up for myself,' he told GQ. 'People don't know anything they're talking about.' For his part Bassett, 24, has just been on a European tour, playing venues in Glasgow, Birmingham and London that are about 20 times smaller than his apparent exes' Hyde Park performances. Carpenter, meanwhile, has hit mega fame. Her sixth album, Short n' Sweet — she is 5ft tall — debuted at No 1 in America. Her single Espresso went platinum in more than a dozen countries and won a Grammy for best pop solo performance. The Disney empire first claimed Carpenter, who grew up East Greenville, Pennsylvania, at 12 years old, signing her into a five-record deal, after which she starred in its show Girl Meets World. After family-friendly pop, Carpenter broke away from the label after just four albums ('I definitely didn't fulfil my contract, thank god,' she told Vogue) and signed with Island Records at 22. Her fifth album, Emails I Can't Send, took a turn towards something more grown-up — and cheeky. 'Woke up this morning, thought I'd write a pop hit,' she trills. Her image shifted again for Short n' Sweet, taking on a hyper-femme, soft-edged, Betty Boop look, her blonde hair big and bouncing. As Time magazine put it: 'She's short, she's funny, and she's horny.' But as she became more of a sex bomb, she got more sardonic. 'You'll just have to taste me when he's kissing you,' she sings in Taste. Her video for Please Please Please featured her then-boyfriend, the actor Barry Keoghan, shortly after his viral scene in Saltburn, in which he is so lustful for his friend he drinks his bathwater. During her performance at Coachella, she swapped her lyrics around with a wink. 'He's drinking my bathwater like it's red wine,' she sang. After their break-up, the internet is again spinning with speculation that her new song, Manchild, relates to him. 'This song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life,' she wrote on social media. It includes the couplet: 'Never heard of self-care/ Half your brain just ain't there.' Carpenter's amped-up naughtiness, however, now runs the risk of tipping into alienation. Her recent album cover, which shows her on her knees in front of a man's legs, while a hand pulls her hair, drew enormous criticism including from Glasgow Women's Aid. Her caricature of the sexualised, submissive woman suddenly looked exactly like the thing it was supposed to be riffing off. At Hyde Park, Rodrigo and Carpenter will hit the same stage on successive weekends after sold-out arena tours, their fans trailing in stomper boots and eyeliner (Rodrigo) or sequins and pale-pink babydoll dresses (Carpenter). It is a very modern coming-of-age story, two young women whose specificity of lyrics and canny presentation of their personal lives have whipped up a frenzy of speculation; whose rage and cheek and charm has been released on the world; who dazzle and glitter — and kick 'em where it hurts.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
2 ways to look smart in the summer heat
I t's hardly groundbreaking to suggest that you should invest in shorts and pastel shades for the summer. But these perennial favourites have made a return with a dash of difference. Gone are the days of tiny denim, stripy linen or crochet shorts — this season, it's all about tailored styles. In crisp white, rich brown or jet black, shorts have made the move to the smarter end of your wardrobe. Wear yours to the office with a sharply tailored jacket (don't worry, you don't have to wear it on the bus or the Tube), soft loafers and some no-nonsense chunky jewellery. For the evening, swap in a dramatic one-shouldered top and a pair of heeled sandals to make the most of your new-found best friends.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Overwork is making us sick — here's how to rest your brain
As I was reading The Brain at Rest, about the cognitive benefits of doing nothing, I was reminded of a comedy sketch that was doing the rounds on social media last year. In it, the American-Irish stand-up Des Bishop fondly recalls how 'mindful' life was before smartphones. Remember, he says, how much of our lives was spent just waiting — for people to show up, for a video to rewind, for a bus to arrive. 'We were mindful half of every f***ing day because we didn't have a choice!' he concluded. 'I didn't realise I was like a f***ing guru before I got a cellphone.' I have a feeling that the British neuroscientist Joseph Jebelli, 39, would enjoy this sketch. He is a fan of just staring out the window on the bus — not to mention hugging trees and meandering through forests with no real agenda except to discover the 'soft fascinations' that plants and flowers can offer. He takes long baths and daily naps. He lies in bed — his 'sleep temple' — daydreaming and only surfaces when he feels rested. He even plays 30 minutes of computer games each day. Even better, he has overcome any guilt associated with idleness. He claims that working only four to six hours a day with frequent breaks has transformed his life and enlarged his brain, enabling him to think in completely new ways. Jebelli is not alone in making claims for the productive powers of idleness — see also business gurus like Fergus O'Connell (The Power of Doing Less, 2013) and activists like Evie Muir (Radical Rest, 2024). But he does bring some scientific rigour to the subject, having written books on Alzheimer's and brain evolution. It's all about activating the 'default network', the circuit of neurons that enables us to daydream, think reflectively and imagine the future (as opposed to the 'executive network' that we use to complete specific tasks). The default network fans out across the brain, occupying the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. It's active only when our minds can roam free. Jebelli explains how he used to put in long hours at the University of Washington until he began to understand that the default network is really 'your brain's hidden superpower' and that accessing it can 'enhance your intelligence, creativity, social empathy and long-term productivity'. Overwork is the monster Jebelli is determined to 'slay'. He cites Roger Federer's 12 hours of sleep each night (plus two hours of naps) and Maria Carey's 15. He rails against the capitalist imperatives of relentless labour, as well as the pressure to socialise. 'We're trapped in a self-erected maze of commitments, missing the beauty and insight beyond its boundaries,' he says, urging the reader to embrace activities like staring into space for 20 minutes. 'Boredom remains one of the most misunderstood and wrongly disparaged mental states.' He wants to reframe boredom as an opportunity for discovery and invention, and overwork as a 'pandemic' that's killing us. 'The scariest thing about the work pandemic is that, unlike other pandemics caused by viruses and bacteria, there is no means of contact-tracing, no methodical approach to the control and spread of the infection. We are all carriers. We are all at risk.' If this sounds hysterically alarmist, it's backed up by some hair-raising stats. The World Health Organisation has called long working hours 'the single deadliest occupational risk factor'. Jebelli says our culture of overwork cost Britain £20.7 billion in 2022 from workers going off sick with everything from cases of stress, depression or anxiety to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Millennials are the worst affected generation: 58 per cent of us overwork, apparently, compared with 31 per cent of baby boomers. These figures represent a 38 per cent increase since 2019, which is worrying. Jebelli urges readers to prioritise sustained wellbeing over 'short-term productivity' and recognise the early warning signs of work burnout. He runs through all the stages, which will feel distressingly familiar to anyone who has experienced it: a subtle feeling of dissatisfaction, followed by stress and emotional exhaustion, that quickly leads to cynicism. • How to supercharge your brain — the experts' rules 'Next comes dehumanisation,' he warns, which manifests as an 'emotional hardening' towards your colleagues. You start complaining about everything, which leads to irrational worry and a 'heavy, suffocating feeling of dread'. Your mind stores feelings of guilt, hopelessness and incompetence that you wear 'like a skin'. Then the most alarming sentence: 'Once it sets in, it can take up to three years to recover.' In the case of Jebelli's father, Abolfazl, though, it's probably too late. As with his 2017 book, In Pursuit of Memory — in which Jebelli described his grandfather's struggle with Alzheimer's — this book is fuelled by a painful personal narrative, in this case what Jebelli calls his family's 'toxic relationship with work' since they emigrated from Iran to England in the early 1980s. It's a classic immigrant story: the family threw themselves into jobs of 'soul-crushing monotony' to make the family back home feel proud. For Abolfazl, who worked long hours in an office, 'this new world was efficient, yes, but desolate'. One day, after he came home shouting, he quit his job and never went back. He was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and hasn't worked since. He now sleeps most of the day. The pressure has fallen on Jebelli's 68-year-old mother, who runs a day care centre but suffers from diminished sight and dangerously high blood pressure that she never has time to address. It's a continuing source of anguish for Jebelli, who insists that the sacrifices they have made on their health are 'not in vain, for it taught me the value of rest'. He struggles with a 'debilitating' anxiety disorder', alleviated by embracing the Dutch art of niksen, a verb that literally means 'to nothing'. He doesn't just stare into space. He forest bathes (walks in the woods), goes for long runs, finds solitude in ten-day solo retreats in remote cabins and plays a fair bit of Mario Kart and zombie shooter games. Still, there are several moments when Jebelli's assertions seem more borne of personal preference than actual research. I don't believe that computer games are better for your health than socialising (an 'unhealthy obsession' of the modern world, he believes). Similarly, he conflates scrolling TikTok with watching a TV show on Netflix, which is apparently full of 'complex storylines' and 'moral dilemmas', which overtaxes your brain. I'd be interested in seeing him go head to head with the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Anxious Generation, on this one. 'Here's what's really bad,' Haidt has said. 'iPad time by yourself. It's solitary.' • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Nor does Jebelli address the gendered nature of rest. Women at work who slack off face far more stigma. In my present co-working space, I have a running joke with my male colleagues — or 'leisure dads' as I've dubbed them — about their hour-long lunch breaks in the park and 11.30am starts after a rock climbing session. But perhaps we could all learn from the leisure dad class. I don't see them suffering from burnout. The revolution has to start somewhere and I think Jebelli's spotlighting of the cognitive benefits is supremely helpful. For all my niggles, The Brain at Rest is inspiring and practical and, I hope, signals a wider change in how we think about work. 'We need to set firm boundaries so that saying 'no' becomes a respected choice, not a sign of weakness, a mark of wisdom, not a failure.' The Brain at Rest: Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life by Dr Joseph Jebelli (Torva £20 pp256). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members 1. Walk slowly through a forest. This helps to improve our creativity and problem-solving abilities. While you're there, hug a tree, which reduces cortisol and activates your brain's default network. 2. Listen to sad music. Not only does it improve your mood, it's also associated with stronger mind wandering, which can enhance your intelligence, creativity, social empathy and emotional processing. 3. Try to nap for 30 minutes daily. It reduces stress, regenerates damaged brain cells and makes your brain bigger. One study suggests that nappers' brains are 15 cubic centimetres larger.
