Widow claims ex-Cardiff City star husband had secret life and married second woman

The widow of former Cardiff City star Jlloyd Samuel has opened up about her late husband's alleged double life.

The defender enjoyed a short loan spell with the Bluebirds in 2011, and previously played in the Premier League for Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers. He would later go on to spend four years plying his trade in Iran before returning to the UK.

Samuel tragically died in a car crash at the age of 37 back in 2018, after his Range Rover collided with a van shortly after he had dropped his children off at school. Shell-shocked, his widow Emma Pritchard has since revealed how she found out the footballer had been leading a secret separate life.

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The pair married in 2008, but Pritchard was later told by a friend that Samuel had married Iranian fashion designed Helia Sehimi, who met the former England youth international during his time in Iranian football. Sehimi, it's claimed, married Samuel in 2013, after he converted to Islam.

Speaking in the documentary, which was made in 2022 but has only recently been made available on Netflix, charting Samuel's death and titled 'The Footballer, His Wife and the Crash', Pritchard said: “I was trying to grieve my husband and find he has another life. Who is my husband - do I really know him?”

“There were even shots of Jlloyd that he'd sent to me on trips to Africa, with crocodiles and then I'd see another picture on Helia's of her with Jlloyd in Africa with the crocodiles.

“It was like a stab in the heart. I'm trying to grieve for my husband and then I find out he's got a full-on other life for seven years. Never ever has he asked me for a divorce.

“As far as I was concerned we were fine, we were great. The night before he passed away he was swinging me around the kitchen telling me how much he loved me.”

Samuel's death sent shockwaves throughout English football, with England manager Gareth Southgate among those to publicly pay their respects.

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Jay Bothroyd, who became a close friend of Samuel during their short spell at Cardiff together, remembers where he was when he heard the awful news. "I couldn't believe it. I sat in a Starbucks car park and I was just crying," he said.

Recounting the time she informed their children, Pritchard added: "I sat them down and I said 'daddy's been in a car accident, and I'm really sorry but he's not coming back. He's gone to heaven'."

Samuel's sister Leslie-Ann has since accused Pritchard of faking his death, while Sahimi has also suggested she believes he's still alive. However, a coroner ruled that the body recovered from the scene did in fact belong to the former footballer, adding he was more than twice over the drink-driving limit.