A Wright Family Holiday’s Josh Wright’s life from football career, reality TV star brother and baby heartache

Josh Wright is currently starring in the new BBC One travel series, A Wright Family Holiday, on Thursday evenings.

The 33-year-old footballer joins his brother Mark Wright and their dad Mark senior as they adventure around some of Britain’s most beautiful locations. The show follows the Wrights as they mountain bike across Snowdonia, skydive in Skegness, and bungee jump off the Garry Bridge in Scotland.

While reality television fans will be familiar with big brother Mark, there’s a legion of football fans who know who Josh is. So if you’re not keen on sport, here’s a snippet inside Josh Wright’s life as he stars in BBC’s newest travel show.

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Who is Josh Wright?

Josh began his career at Charlton Athletic, in South London, making his debut for the team back in 2008. The midfielder made three appearances in total for Charlton before moving to Scunthorpe United in 2009.

One of Wright’s football highlights came in September 2010 when he played against Manchester United in the Carling Cup. He scored the opening goal game against United at Glanford Park after the ball fell to the midfielder outside the box, who fired it past Tomasz Kuszczak and into the top corner from 25 yards.

However, it ended in a 5-2 defeat for Scunthorpe, with United replying through goals from Darron Gibson, Chris Smalling, Park Ji-sung, and a brace from Michael Owen.

Wright was a regular for the Iron during their two-season stint in the Championship and made 71 league appearances for the club, before moving back to London and joining Millwall in 2011 after Scunthorpe United’s relegation from the second tier.

His time at The Den lasted for four years and he clocked up more than 50 games but Josh was sent out on loan several times until joining Leyton Orient on a permanent basis. A short stint with the O’s was followed by a move to fellow League One side Gillingham.

Wright was a first-team regular for the Gills, making over 100 appearances across two spells, the most of his career. A return to Orient in 2019 was sandwiched between short spells with Southend United, Bradford City and Crawley Town.

He dropped into non-league with Billericay Town in 2021 and currently plays for Ebbsfleet United, who earned promotion from the National League South this season.

Family life and baby heartache

In 2018, Josh married the love of his life Hollie Kane in a magical ceremony at a private estate, La Fortaleza, in Majorca, and his older brother Mark was his best man.

The couple had been dating for seven years before they got engaged during a romantic trip to Dubai in 2017.

Josh and Holly share two children, one-year-old son Joshua and four-month-old son Dustin, who was born 12 weeks prematurely in February, weighing 2.4 lbs

In an emotional Instagram post shared in February, Hollie and Josh confirmed their beautiful boy caught them ‘by surprise’ as they thanked the NHS for their support.

In April, the proud parents confirmed Dustin was allowed home after spending eight weeks in the hospital.

Last week, Josh shared photos alongside his wife and two sons as they enjoyed their first holiday as a family of four.

Famous brother

Josh’s older brother Mark Wright shot to fame on The Only Way is Essex alongside Sam Faiers and ex-girlfriend Lauren Goodger. He was the golden boy of the show for three seasons before quitting in 2011, he returned for the odd cameo role but hasn’t been back for some years.

Their sister Jess Wright was also a key cast member of TOWIE from 2010 to 2016 as was their cousin Elliot Wright who featured on the show from 2010 to 2017. Mark’s parents Mark and Carol, and his late Nanny Pat were also stars on the show.

He’s also starred on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Strictly Come Dancing, and US showbiz programme, Extra, – to name a few.

He presents Heart FM’s Saturday afternoon show and also Mark also signed for Crawley Town on a non-contract basis in December 2020

Mark began dating stunning TV star Michelle Keegan in December 2012. On September 9, 2013, the loved-up pair announced their engagement and they got married on May 24, 2015.

*A Wright Family Holiday currently airs Thursdays, on BBC One at 8pm

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