The goal for a footballer's wife from the Wirral is to make life easier for other WAGs
So, you want to be a WAG and enjoy an endless round of celebrity parties, fashion shows, glitz and glamour? Think again, Becky Mellor says it’s a life filled with uncertainty - and she should know.
Her husband Neil started his career at Liverpool and has since played for Wigan, Preston and Sheffield Wednesday. He doesn’t know yet where he will be playing when next season kicks off in August.
‘It can be a nightmare,’ said Becky who is from West Kirby on the Wirral. ‘It can be the case that you’re on the move every season, just being uprooted from your home and planted somewhere else, away from your friends and family, where you don’t know anyone or where anything is.
‘Whatever job your husband has - whether he’s a footballer or a businessman or anything else - it’s very difficult to leave everyone you know behind.’
It was this experience that led Becky and her business partner Pippa Saunders to create Professional Wifestyle, an agency dedicated to helping wives and partners settle in to a new area.
The business was launched last year and already has a list of high profile clients who can access help on everything from finding trustworthy tradesmen to knowing where the nice nurseries are.
‘It has always been an issue with me and my friends,’ Becky said. ‘We just used to moan among ourselves about it but then I decided to do something about it. We have had a really good response from the Professional Footballers’ Association and word of mouth seems to be getting round clubs across the North West.
‘We can help with events, parties, weddings and day to day lifestyle things like knowing interior designers, good schools in the area and places to go for nights out - all the things you don’t know when you just landed in a new place.
‘I have moved a few times with Neil and it’s horrible to leave your friends and family behind. There are lots of good things about the lifestyle we have but footballers often don’t find out until the last minute where they will be playing the next season and that is difficult, especially when they have wives and children.’
