18 years ago, all eyes were on Abbey Clancy and her fellow footballer’s partners as they landed in the sleepy town of Baden-Baden for the 2006 Fifa World Cup. While their boys raced to score goals for their country, on the sidelines something more seismic was brewing. A cultural shift comprised of wispy blonde highlights, denim miniskirts and aviator shades had hit the German streets. Here, the WAG was born. And Clancy, the wife of England star footballer Peter Crouch, was in the premier division, along with Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole.
Today the blonde bombshell dismisses that period, claiming the years of the paparazzi circus are long behind her. Calling over her car audio, Clancy is embracing a new form of chaos: she’s on the school-run and is dashing back to her flashy Surrey mansion to make the evening’s feast – the kids Sophia, 12, Liberty, 8, Johnny, 5, Jack, 4, have taken over. Now, her life is all about dinner times, baking with her children and learning TikTok dances.
As the Beckham documentary forces a reevaluation of the WAG term, the women themselves have been proving their detractors wrong, from Victoria Beckham and Coleen Rooney to Abbey Clancy
But – somehow, among all this – Abbey is still finding time to pursue her passions: she has entered her interior design phase. 'Maybe it means I’m getting old,’ she says, in her rich Scouse accent with a wry smile. Nice try: just one glance at her will prove she’s just as glamorous as ever. And so is her latest project, the ITV show Abbey Clancy: Celebrity Homes, for which chatelaines across the land have thrown open the doors of their usual very private homes, ranging from the Marchioness of Bath at Longleat to Jodie Kidd at her 17th century Surrey cottage. ‘It is the most fascinating thing is getting to look round people’s homes. Everyone’s tastes reflect their unique personalities,’ says Clancy. Think of it as MTV’s Cribs, but totally, luxuriously British.
As host, Clancy has credentials. Take a step into her Surrey mansion’s neutral corridors and you’ll see her enduring sense of style – she prefers a classic look to anything modern, opting for paisley rugs and vast mirrors as decoration. ‘I love antiques,’ she purrs. ‘I love a bargain – but I like to spend money on investment staples.’ Namely, her hand-carved Senufo bed from the Ivory Coast. But above all, her home is built around her family: ‘I’ve got four kids. I’ve got a big, busy family. My house is full of life. I’ve introduced a lot of colour… it hides the mucky fingerprints,’ she grins. When it comes to the house: ‘the biggest compliment someone can give is wanting to stay longer,’ she admits.
Tatler looks at the glamorous world of Nicola Peltz’s family in an article first published in the July 2020 issue
An interior connoisseur she definitely is. But a few things have caught Clancy’s eye on her high-low whirlwind tour of Britain’s grandest piles. Nouveau riche Love Island star Olivia Bowen had a dog bath for her puppies; Linda Plant had a mid century mirror so decadent, Clancy begged to take it; and Jodie Kidd treated her to a beer in the pub that she owns.
And though Clancy has mellowed, there is an endearing streak of wildness — she loves a cocktail and certainly hasn’t forgotten those thrilling early days with Crouch. ‘After a few drinks at home I’ll run upstairs and get my wedding dress on,’ she squeals, when I ask about how she spends her evenings in. Then she'll text fashion designer Giles Deacon, who made the one-off corseted creation, to celebrate that it still ‘just about’ fits 12 years later. It seems her wedding day at Grade I-listed Stapleford Park, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, is still one of life’s great highs – even if she thinks her eyebrows looked like they were ‘drawn on with a biro’. The memory means so much that she wanted to relive it: Clancy and her husband renewed their vows in December in a magical Maldives beach ceremony. Wearing a vintage lace dress, it was the couple’s dream come true. ‘I’d celebrate our love every day if I was allowed to,’ she says, more sincere than schmaltzy.
Together, after all, they are a power couple. Within these pristine, white walls that her friends – which include the likes of Christine Lampard – come round for Sunday lunch, chocolate cakes and late nights of cocktails. She knows how to treat her guests, and isn’t averse to zeitgeisty tablescaping as a means to impress. As for Crouch? His speciality is tea and toast. Clancy plays down their flashy contacts book – calling their close friends and family their ‘dream dinner party guests’. But of course the football lads have had catch ups. She names no names, but smiles: perhaps Crouch’s ex England teammates, David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand or Frank Lampard might be lurking?
Eilidh Hargreaves laments the end of the WAG as we know her. The glory days were a self-stoked paparazzi blaze, but it all went too far
Coy, absolutely – but being married to Peter Crouch means Clancy knows that football is the sport of the people. All people – including Aston Villa mega-fan Prince William, who Crouch interviewed at Kensington Palace for his podcast in 2020. ‘It is quite the claim to fame, isn’t it? We love the Royal Family,’ says Clancy. They bonded over the badly chosen presents they’d previously bought for their wives (did the Princess of Wales really need a pair of binoculars?), shared a few pints together and dined at the local Indian – just another evening.
Abbey’s met the future king a few times too. ‘He’s just normal really, totally lovely,’ she says, blasé. A classic comment from a certified insider.
Tatler picks out what you might expect to see in the new Netflix Beckham documentary
And then there are the Beckhams, whose new four-part documentary series has struck Abbey with a wave of nostalgia. ‘I loved it,’ she says. ‘Victoria has got an amazing sense of humour.’ Of that era, Clancy wears her WAG identity with pride. ‘I’ve been called much worse,’ she says. All that grainy footage must make her grateful to have shot to fame in the years before Instagram (she confesses many fashion faux-pas, breathing a sigh of relief that ‘they were only captured on a Kodak camera’). But today, Abbey is winning at Instagram too, resplendent in her professed favourites, Bottega Veneta and Alaïa, and – surely the WAG antithesis – vintage. (She loves to shop pre-owned fashion at Found and Vision on Portobello Road.)
And when it comes to Crouch, they are still love’s young dream. First meeting in 2006, Clancy cites his ‘kind eyes’ as what first sent her heart aflutter. Their marriage has long been a public affair. Yes, they renewed their vows last year in a sunset ceremony in the Maldives (in true noughties fashion, the photos were part of an exclusive deal with Hello!); yes, they launched their couples podcast The Therapy Crouch; but spot them at events, from at the Four Seasons in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to The Cambridge Club Festival and you see it for real. Abbey on Peter’s knee, Peter with his arms around Abbey. It’s the picture of perfection: almost. Crouch, Clancy claims, has no annoying habits – but then she backpedals… golf.
But while he disappears to the fairways, she has Celebrity Homes – and her own Surrey pile to consider. ‘I’m doing a revamp at the moment,’ she says. There’s talk of a terracotta floor so her ‘dogs can come in full of mud’, more neutral tones and a bathroom upgrade. ‘I’m a bit sad, I just love being at home. It is my absolute sanctuary’. Sad? No chance. After her years on the town, she’s more than earned this luxuriously gentle life.
Abbey Clancy: Celebrity Homes airs every Thursday at 9pm on ITVBe and is available to stream on ITVX
