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Thats my first thoughts when i read such stories.
I suppose to truly sympathise with such former stars, you really have to have lived the life to appreciate and understand how such people can claim to be financially bruk.
Onetime star lost a £10million fortune through bad investments
Walking on to the Wembley turf for England, Lee Hendrie had the world at his feet.
The Premier League star earned £40,000 a week at Aston Villa. He had a fortune to spend on luxury cars and houses.
But beyond the roar of the crowd, a nightmare future was waiting for the cocksure young sportsman.
Today Lee, 34, reveals how he TWICE tried to kill himself after his career faded, he lost a potential £10million in property deals and ended up with £1million
in debts.
While his England under-21 team-mates Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard went on to glittering careers, Lee’s life fell apart.
And today he tells the Sunday Mirror what he has never told even his closest pals in football: “I seriously wanted to end it all.
“I had everything. I played for England at Wembley in front of my family, scored goals for Villa in front of 40,000 people. I was playing with Lampard, Gerrard and Rio. I watch them now knowing I could still be in the top flight if it hadn’t all gone wrong.”
By 2010 he had lost everything.
Loving couple: Lee with his future wife Emma, who he credits with saving his life
“I couldn’t get a contract with a club. I had no money left, all the houses were going and everything just came tumbling down,” he says. “I felt I had failed my family and I wanted out... to end it all.”
Now he is fighting back – and this week he will marry fiancee Emma Cheal, 27, the mother of his two youngest children, who has stood by him through his darkest days.
It was her quick thinking that saved Lee when he made his first suicide attempt in August 2010. His life had sunk into depression over a career wrecked by injury and his looming money problems.
After a row with Emma he drove off in his car and downed an overdose of tablets with a bottle of wine in a car park. She called police who traced Lee by his mobile phone signal and told her where to find him. She arrived at the car park just in time to get him to hospital.
“I had texted my mum and sister, told them to look after the kids,” says Lee. “Emma rang me, I answered the phone. I was all over the place. She said ‘where are you?’ I said ‘don’t worry’ and put the phone down Next thing I knew I was waking up in hospital on a drip.”
But if that had been a warning, Lee failed to heed it. And last July he took another overdose as he realised his mum’s house and other family properties faced repossession. This time he was on life support for 24 hours.
He found tablets Emma had hidden and drove to his mum’s home, where he grabbed more pills and locked himself in the bathroom. Lee says: “I knew everything was going under. My mum didn’t know I had the tablets and I got double the amount as last time just to make sure I did the job properly.
“I remember being sat on the edge of the toilet seat and then I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror and thought: ‘I am a disgrace’.
“That was it, the next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital. I had been on life support because the amount of tablets I had taken had shut my body down to virtually nothing.
“I was told the bathroom door was kicked off. I was in hospital five days. I made a lot of people angry and upset again.”.
It was a far cry from Birmingham-born Lee’s early career. He joined Aston Villa on schoolboy terms and made his Premier League debut at 18 in 1996.
He says: “I thought I had made it. I was playing at Man United and Liverpool. I loved it.”
He earned 12 caps with England U21s, then national manager Glenn Hoddle, shortly to be fired, picked him for the senior team against the Czech Republic in 1998. A schoolboy dream had come true.
He said: “I remember the lads coming over to shake my hands, David Beckham and Robbie Fowler, they made me feel welcome and part of the team. Running out at Wembley with my family in the stands was unbelievable. I was told Glenn Hoddle wanted me to be part of his team... but the next week he left.”
With success on the pitch came all the millionaire trappings. Lee splashed out on £1.2 million on more than 20 luxury cars, including a Ferrari 360 Spider, worth £120,000, a Bentley Continental GT and a Porsche Cayenne.
He says: “I always had three cars at any one time. I kept changing them.
“I bought my nan and grandad a bungalow, my mum a house and I was told to invest in property for my future.
“I was signing paperwork for houses and apartments in Knightsbridge and Notting Hill to sell them on for a profit. I followed advice but all I was really interested in was playing football.”
And women too. In 2004 Lee married his childhood sweetheart Becky – the mother of his two eldest children Maizie, 12, and Tallulah, eight. But the marriage fell apart after a few hours when Becky discovered her partygoing womanising husband had been texting Emma.
Lee says: “I was too young. I completely blame myself for the Jack the Lad I was then. Girls in clubs would throw themselves at you, getting their t***s out in front for you. There were girls I wished I never went near but it was so tempting. All it does is cause hurt and shame. You are hurting the people you love and shaming yourself.”
Then there were international drink binges with his pals. “We would be drinking all day and then I would say, ‘Right, go and get your passports lads’, I would get as much cash out as possible and head to the nearest airport.
“I would pay for them to get on the next flight to Marbella or Majorca, although sometimes we never made it because we were so drunk.
“I remember waking up still at the airport in Birmingham with loads of cash falling out of my pockets.”
But his fortunes on the pitch took a turn for the worse when his favourite manager John Gregory left Villa. In 2007 he left the club after 251 appearances and moved to Sheffield United, then to Derby County. Depression took root when he realised that his footballing career was coming to an end even though he was only in his early 30s and his friends were still enjoying Premier League and England international success.
After an unsuccessful spell at Derby, he became terrified he would never get a football contract again. Lee said: “I sat in the house starring through the window, or watching my goals over and over again on TV, just wanting to play football.”
That was when he made the first attempt to kill himself. After his recovery he tried to start afresh, joining Bradford City. But off the pitch he started to have major problems, eventually discovering his millions of pounds invested in properties had been wiped out through falling prices and negative equity.
He says: “I couldn’t get answers out of my advisors. Eventually Emma’s dad got someone to go through all my finances. It was bad news, I had lost everything.
“At one time I had a property portfolio of 25 houses and apartments worth £10million. Even after the crash I should have taken some money back but I didn’t, I had been given some very bad advice. I was declared bankrupt last year and my debts were a million pounds.”
Lee’s own mansion in Rowington, Warks, bought for £1.7million in 2006, was repossessed. And when his mum and other family members faced losing the homes he had so proudly bought for them, he attempted suicide for the
second time.
After that attempt Lee began to face up to his problems and has attended regular counselling sessions.
Now playing non-league football and scraping a living wherever he can, Lee says: “It was my wake-up call. I imagined my four children if they didn’t have their dad around.”
The death of his former Sheffield United team-mate Gary Speed, found hanged at his home, was a shocking reminder of the devastation his actions could have caused to his whole family.
He said: “I remember the day when he died I just felt sick. I couldn’t believe it. I felt it could have been me. Speedo was top-drawer. I saw what happened to his wife and kids afterwards and thought about how they must be feeling.”
Now Lee is looking forward to his wedding this week and to enjoying a settled family life with Emma and their two children – Theo, two, and Harley, one. He hopes his story will be a warning to others who think of killing themselves through despair.
“I am judged as an arrogant footballer and a womaniser but I am not a bad person,” he says. “I just hope my experience can help others seek help and talk to someone.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/lee-hen...ttempts-830391
I suppose to truly sympathise with such former stars, you really have to have lived the life to appreciate and understand how such people can claim to be financially bruk.
Onetime star lost a £10million fortune through bad investments
Walking on to the Wembley turf for England, Lee Hendrie had the world at his feet.
The Premier League star earned £40,000 a week at Aston Villa. He had a fortune to spend on luxury cars and houses.
But beyond the roar of the crowd, a nightmare future was waiting for the cocksure young sportsman.
Today Lee, 34, reveals how he TWICE tried to kill himself after his career faded, he lost a potential £10million in property deals and ended up with £1million
in debts.
While his England under-21 team-mates Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard went on to glittering careers, Lee’s life fell apart.
And today he tells the Sunday Mirror what he has never told even his closest pals in football: “I seriously wanted to end it all.
“I had everything. I played for England at Wembley in front of my family, scored goals for Villa in front of 40,000 people. I was playing with Lampard, Gerrard and Rio. I watch them now knowing I could still be in the top flight if it hadn’t all gone wrong.”
By 2010 he had lost everything.
“I couldn’t get a contract with a club. I had no money left, all the houses were going and everything just came tumbling down,” he says. “I felt I had failed my family and I wanted out... to end it all.”
Now he is fighting back – and this week he will marry fiancee Emma Cheal, 27, the mother of his two youngest children, who has stood by him through his darkest days.
It was her quick thinking that saved Lee when he made his first suicide attempt in August 2010. His life had sunk into depression over a career wrecked by injury and his looming money problems.
After a row with Emma he drove off in his car and downed an overdose of tablets with a bottle of wine in a car park. She called police who traced Lee by his mobile phone signal and told her where to find him. She arrived at the car park just in time to get him to hospital.
“I had texted my mum and sister, told them to look after the kids,” says Lee. “Emma rang me, I answered the phone. I was all over the place. She said ‘where are you?’ I said ‘don’t worry’ and put the phone down Next thing I knew I was waking up in hospital on a drip.”
But if that had been a warning, Lee failed to heed it. And last July he took another overdose as he realised his mum’s house and other family properties faced repossession. This time he was on life support for 24 hours.
He found tablets Emma had hidden and drove to his mum’s home, where he grabbed more pills and locked himself in the bathroom. Lee says: “I knew everything was going under. My mum didn’t know I had the tablets and I got double the amount as last time just to make sure I did the job properly.
“I remember being sat on the edge of the toilet seat and then I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror and thought: ‘I am a disgrace’.
“That was it, the next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital. I had been on life support because the amount of tablets I had taken had shut my body down to virtually nothing.
“I was told the bathroom door was kicked off. I was in hospital five days. I made a lot of people angry and upset again.”.
It was a far cry from Birmingham-born Lee’s early career. He joined Aston Villa on schoolboy terms and made his Premier League debut at 18 in 1996.
He says: “I thought I had made it. I was playing at Man United and Liverpool. I loved it.”
He earned 12 caps with England U21s, then national manager Glenn Hoddle, shortly to be fired, picked him for the senior team against the Czech Republic in 1998. A schoolboy dream had come true.
He said: “I remember the lads coming over to shake my hands, David Beckham and Robbie Fowler, they made me feel welcome and part of the team. Running out at Wembley with my family in the stands was unbelievable. I was told Glenn Hoddle wanted me to be part of his team... but the next week he left.”
With success on the pitch came all the millionaire trappings. Lee splashed out on £1.2 million on more than 20 luxury cars, including a Ferrari 360 Spider, worth £120,000, a Bentley Continental GT and a Porsche Cayenne.
He says: “I always had three cars at any one time. I kept changing them.
“I bought my nan and grandad a bungalow, my mum a house and I was told to invest in property for my future.
“I was signing paperwork for houses and apartments in Knightsbridge and Notting Hill to sell them on for a profit. I followed advice but all I was really interested in was playing football.”
And women too. In 2004 Lee married his childhood sweetheart Becky – the mother of his two eldest children Maizie, 12, and Tallulah, eight. But the marriage fell apart after a few hours when Becky discovered her partygoing womanising husband had been texting Emma.
Lee says: “I was too young. I completely blame myself for the Jack the Lad I was then. Girls in clubs would throw themselves at you, getting their t***s out in front for you. There were girls I wished I never went near but it was so tempting. All it does is cause hurt and shame. You are hurting the people you love and shaming yourself.”
Then there were international drink binges with his pals. “We would be drinking all day and then I would say, ‘Right, go and get your passports lads’, I would get as much cash out as possible and head to the nearest airport.
“I would pay for them to get on the next flight to Marbella or Majorca, although sometimes we never made it because we were so drunk.
“I remember waking up still at the airport in Birmingham with loads of cash falling out of my pockets.”
But his fortunes on the pitch took a turn for the worse when his favourite manager John Gregory left Villa. In 2007 he left the club after 251 appearances and moved to Sheffield United, then to Derby County. Depression took root when he realised that his footballing career was coming to an end even though he was only in his early 30s and his friends were still enjoying Premier League and England international success.
After an unsuccessful spell at Derby, he became terrified he would never get a football contract again. Lee said: “I sat in the house starring through the window, or watching my goals over and over again on TV, just wanting to play football.”
That was when he made the first attempt to kill himself. After his recovery he tried to start afresh, joining Bradford City. But off the pitch he started to have major problems, eventually discovering his millions of pounds invested in properties had been wiped out through falling prices and negative equity.
He says: “I couldn’t get answers out of my advisors. Eventually Emma’s dad got someone to go through all my finances. It was bad news, I had lost everything.
“At one time I had a property portfolio of 25 houses and apartments worth £10million. Even after the crash I should have taken some money back but I didn’t, I had been given some very bad advice. I was declared bankrupt last year and my debts were a million pounds.”
Lee’s own mansion in Rowington, Warks, bought for £1.7million in 2006, was repossessed. And when his mum and other family members faced losing the homes he had so proudly bought for them, he attempted suicide for the
second time.
After that attempt Lee began to face up to his problems and has attended regular counselling sessions.
Now playing non-league football and scraping a living wherever he can, Lee says: “It was my wake-up call. I imagined my four children if they didn’t have their dad around.”
The death of his former Sheffield United team-mate Gary Speed, found hanged at his home, was a shocking reminder of the devastation his actions could have caused to his whole family.
He said: “I remember the day when he died I just felt sick. I couldn’t believe it. I felt it could have been me. Speedo was top-drawer. I saw what happened to his wife and kids afterwards and thought about how they must be feeling.”
Now Lee is looking forward to his wedding this week and to enjoying a settled family life with Emma and their two children – Theo, two, and Harley, one. He hopes his story will be a warning to others who think of killing themselves through despair.
“I am judged as an arrogant footballer and a womaniser but I am not a bad person,” he says. “I just hope my experience can help others seek help and talk to someone.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/lee-hen...ttempts-830391
plus his advisors put all the man's eggs in one basket...
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