When I saw Olivia Attwood and husband Bradley Dack last week, I had no inkling that in just matter of days the couple would be announcing their separation.
Footballer Dack had come to support his TV-host wife at the private viewing of her latest ITV series, Getting Filthy Rich – held in the plush, low-lit cinema inside London’s Selfridges.
The guest list was deliberately small: a handful of Press, influencers, friends and family. Dack played his role to perfection.
He ordered drinks for Olivia and her friends at the bar. He mingled politely with other guests. Every few minutes, he checked in on her, his hand settling on her waist. It felt tender, attentive, reassuring.
A relief, even, given the whispers about the shaky state of their three-year marriage.
They sat side by side, sharing popcorn and giggling at scenes from the show.
At one point Dack appeared on screen himself, joking that he’d consider subscribing to OnlyFans if his favourite footballers ever started posting content on there.
When the episode ended, he clapped loudly as Olivia took questions from the room, cheering her on without hesitation. He stayed back as she posed for photos and chatted to guests, never straying far.
Bradley Dack and Olivia Attwood’s marriage has come to an end after three years
But I can now reveal the unity on display masked a far more fragile reality, with sources close to the couple saying this carefully choreographed appearance was a last-ditch effort to present a picture of calm while their marriage was quietly unravelling.
It’s been reported they split over a ‘breach of trust’ on Dack’s part. Friends of the couple also suggest the decision was not taken lightly, but came after repeated attempts to make the marriage work.
Indeed, just months earlier, the picture had looked very different.
In September, when Olivia – who made her name on Love Island – wrapped filming on the second series of ITV’s Bad Boyfriends, a programme in which she helps to ‘reform’ troublesome partners, she was quietly dealing with turmoil in her own marriage.
Over the summer, Olivia had been photographed in Ibiza alongside her close friend and The Only Way Is Essex co-star Pete Wicks, with images showing the pair laughing, touching and appearing intimate on a boat. The snapshots immediately set social media alight and fuelled speculation about the state of her marriage.
Olivia played them down, insisting Pete was a trusted friend and nothing more. But sources say the fallout from those pictures was significant, not least because they arrived during an already difficult period.
Olivia later admitted she had been ‘pictured getting too close’ to a mate and acknowledged how damaging the timing had been.
She added: ‘I didn’t want to ask [my husband] to come to a red carpet and pretend. I think I’m tempting fate by forcing us.’
And she admitted the couple had endured a ‘challenging six months’, confessing they ‘f***ed up’ but stressing they were trying to work through it.
Crucially, she revealed that the aftermath prompted advice from her PR team to present a united front with Dack publicly – advice she was deeply uncomfortable with.
‘My PR team told us to post photos and go to events together,’ she said. ‘But at the time we really weren’t getting on and that’s not who I am. I didn’t like the idea of forcing photos.’
That admission came just before she hosted a glamorous event, which I attended, for her new River Island clothing collection surrounded by influencers, journalists and friends.
I revealed how Dack arrived alone, slipping quietly into the venue and heading straight towards friends, while Olivia entered minutes later with great fanfare, smiling, waving and posing for photographs.
When she eventually made her way over to her husband, the interaction was brief – a quick peck before she returned to working the room.
They didn’t pose for a single photo together. He followed silently behind her as she spoke to guests, rarely interacting.
One source observed: ‘Thank God Brad turned up. It was about time they put those rumours to bed. But there was a lot of tension. They barely spoke all night.’
The couple’s appearance was meant to reassure everybody that everything was fine between them. Instead, it raised more questions.
All of which makes their appearance last week at Selfridges all the more telling.
The footballer and TV host had been masking the quiet unravelling of their relationship, writes Molly Clayton
Despite the ongoing rift, Dack showed himself to be supportive of his wife’s endeavours
Olivia was photographed cuddling The Only Way Is Essex star Pete Wicks in Ibiza last summer
Sources now tell me the evening was carefully considered, a conscious decision to steady the narrative after months of mounting scrutiny.
Earlier this week details of Olivia’s close friendship with Pete Wicks were revealed, raising questions over whether or not it was Dack who ‘crossed the line’.
Olivia has hired a new ex-ITV publicist after the ‘panic’ behind the scenes over Olivia and Pete. The pair struck up a friendship after hosting the weekend radio show The Sunday Roast on Kiss FM together.
This has prompted a carefully orchestrated PR operation to swing into action.
Meanwhile, Pete’s camp has reportedly been ‘stressing’ out over what the rumours could mean for him – particularly if he were seen as being connected to the collapse of Olivia’s marriage.
Olivia and Dack’s relationship has always been complicated.
They met long before they both became famous, crossing paths in a London nightclub when he was 21 and she was 24. Sparks didn’t fly immediately. But Dack persisted, sliding into her Instagram messages until she agreed to a date. Their first outing was modest: a dinner at Nando’s.
‘She made me laugh,’ Dack said. ‘I fell in love with her personality.’
But cracks soon appeared.
Back then, Olivia was facing career-defining choices. She had turned down requests from producers on dating show Love Island twice, first after landing modelling contracts, then again because she was already dating Dack.
Then, in 2017, came a call that changed everything. On the end of the line was a woman who told her: ‘I’m Brad’s girlfriend.’
Olivia later revealed: ‘Then we had a chat and, basically, [he] had been seeing her as well as me.’
The next day, Olivia called the Love Island producers back and agreed to appear on the show – a decision which launched the start of her TV career. She later appeared on The Only Way Is Essex and hosted her documentaries.
After Love Island, Olivia dated her cast mate Chris Hughes before reuniting with Dack.
The couple married in June 2023, with Olivia saying: ‘I feel like we had to break up and fall apart to grow up. And we both grew up a lot in those years.’
Indeed, over the years the couple has been unusually honest about married life. They’ve admitted to sharing the same therapist. Dack has spoken openly about wanting Olivia to initiate intimacy more often. They’ve also acknowledged being at different stages when it comes to starting a family: Dack has said he would have a baby ‘tomorrow’ and Olivia has suggested she’s happy to wait.
Those differences became harder to manage last year. And the strain extended beyond the marriage. Around the same time, Olivia also suffered a painful fallout with her former assistant and stylist, Ryan Kay. Once inseparable, their relationship reportedly became ‘toxic’, with Kay siding with Dack amid scrutiny of the marriage.
Friends say Olivia felt deeply betrayed. Now, by all accounts, it seems she’s been betrayed again – by the person closest to her.
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