{"id":475720,"date":"2026-03-14T19:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475720\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:12:18","slug":"michelle-keegan-is-mortified-and-mark-wright-is-fuming-insiders-tell-katie-hind-what-the-couple-really-think-of-his-mother-and-sister-as-essex-rivals-celebrate-downfall-of-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/475720\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Keegan is ‘mortified’ and Mark Wright is ‘fuming’: Insiders tell KATIE HIND what the couple REALLY think of his mother and sister as Essex rivals celebrate downfall of the family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0There\u00a0has been much unpleasant whinging within the Wright family this week.<\/p>\n

The powerful Essex clan, who perhaps long believed their popularity was untouchable, have been left stunned by the brutal backlash that matriarch Carol and her eldest daughter Jess have received for lambasting women who wear thong bikinis on the beach.<\/p>\n

Even loyal fans of the family have turned on the pair, while social media trolls have also targeted Natalya, Carol\u2019s youngest daughter and Jess\u2019s little sister, in a manner that can only be described as vicious.<\/p>\n

Quite how a casual remark made on the trio\u2019s podcast about a tiny scrap of cloth could have turned into such a career-defining ruckus has left them shaken and unnerved.<\/p>\n

And rivals of the family have been in touch with me to joke that, as some celebrate the Wrights\u2019 potential downfall, there are certain to be plenty of requests for Sisqo\u2019s 1999 hit Thong Song in bars all over the county.<\/p>\n

But behind closed doors at the \u00a33.5million mansion of Carol\u2019s son Mark Wright and his wife, actress Michelle Keegan<\/a>, no one is laughing.<\/p>\n

Until now, how the glamorous couple have felt about it all has been unclear.<\/p>\n

But today, I can reveal that my Essex sources say Michelle, 38, is \u2018mortified and embarrassed\u2019 at the saga engulfing her in-laws \u2013 especially as she has been partial to a thong bikini herself, sometimes during holidays with the Wrights.<\/p>\n

\"Carol <\/p>\n

Carol Wright with daughters Natalya and Jess (centre) believed they were untouchable, but have been left stunned at the backlash they\u2019ve had for lambasting women for wearing thong bikini bottoms on the beach<\/p>\n

\"Loyal <\/p>\n

Loyal fans of the family have turned on the pair, while social media trolls have also targeted Natalya, Carol\u2019s youngest daughter and Jess\u2019s little sister, in a manner that can only be described as vicious\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark, meanwhile, is dumbfounded and furious that his mum and sisters could not just prompt such a huge scandal but allow it to blow out of all proportion.<\/p>\n

My source said: \u2018Michelle is mortified and wants no part of any of it. She\u2019s completely distancing herself from it all. She will never ever talk about it because it\u2019s her husband\u2019s family, but she is deeply embarrassed by it all. This is not the kind of drama she wants to get caught up in.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mark is fuming and can\u2019t believe they would be so stupid as to not only say those things on their podcast but to let it get through the edit.<\/p>\n

\u2018They have the final say on what goes out and he can\u2019t believe they didn\u2019t foresee that there could be a huge backlash with those comments,\u2019 added the source. \u2018They\u2019ve been in this game for long enough to know better. And who actually did edit it?<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a lot of anger and blame going on. And, of course, Mark has got his wife on one side, who isn\u2019t getting involved and doesn\u2019t want to hear anything about it, and his mum and sister on the other side who are in bits about it all. They don\u2019t know what to do because it is not blowing over. But they have alienated so much of their fan base.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was last week on their popular podcast Wright At Home that Carol, 65, and her daughters Jess, 40, and Natalya, 25, turned the chat to thong-style swimwear.<\/p>\n

In the now-infamous exchange, Jess asked: \u2018How\u2019s it acceptable to walk around a beach in a thong?\u2019<\/p>\n

Carol agreed that it was \u2018not sexy for men to look at\u2019, while Jess added that her husband, Will, \u2018cannot stand it\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Mark <\/p>\n

Mark Wright (pictured with his wife Michelle keegan) is dumbfounded and furious that his mum and sisters could prompt such a huge scandal, and allow it go blow out of all proportion<\/p>\n

\"On <\/p>\n

On the Wright at Home podcast, Jess (pictured, with Natalya, left) asked: \u2018How\u2019s it acceptable to walk around a beach in a thong?\u2019, which prompted women to proudly post images of them wearing their own thongs<\/p>\n

But their disapproval, in a clip that went viral, saw a huge backlash online, and prompted women to proudly post images of them wearing their own thongs.<\/p>\n

Far the worst part for the Wrights is the fact that the incident \u2013 now known as \u2018Thong-gate\u2019 \u2013 has unmasked Carol and Jess for not being quite as nice as they\u2019d like people to think.<\/p>\n

\u2018Jess keeps saying, “How can people be so mean?”\u2019 continues my source. \u2018She is seeing all the posts and reading all the comments. Carol is a bit thicker-skinned, but even she thinks the reaction has been vile.\u2019<\/p>\n

That Natalya, 25, the youngest of the Wright clan, has also come under huge attack has also come as a surprise to her followers \u2013 and to her very protective older brother Mark.<\/p>\n

One source said: \u2018Everyone is pretty surprised that Natalya has got herself caught up in this as she\u2019s not really like that. Carol and Jess are pretty well-known for their judgy comments and put-downs of other women.<\/p>\n

\u2018They have a track record of it and have fallen out with so many people in Essex over the years.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Wrights have attempted to hit back by setting their manager Benji Rom (described to me by friends of the Wrights as an \u2018absolute sycophant\u2019) onto the Press, warning off journalists from being critical of them by citing their mental health as a reason to stop writing articles.<\/p>\n

They also issued an apology, which read: \u2018We\u2019ve listened, we hear you and we want to say sorry.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our judgment was wrong and we take full accountability and will do better moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u2018Love Jess, Natalya & Carol.\u2019<\/p>\n

Their apology doesn\u2019t appear to have persuaded many of their critics to side with them. And with many in Essex relishing the downfall of the flashy, arrogant Wright family, those who know (and dislike) them are busy speculating about what happens next. Could this be the end of their fame?<\/p>\n

\u2018What is it they say about being careful who you meet on the way up?\u2019 said one source. \u2018In 2026, no woman should be telling another woman what she can or can\u2019t wear.<\/p>\n

\u2018The way they shamed other women was something that they will never recover from. They are finished.\u2019<\/p>\n

As for Mark, his fellow Essex residents are keen to see what happens next: will he stick with the family or distance himself from them, like his wife?<\/p>\n

One piece of good news is that despite rumours to the contrary, Marks & Spencer have refused to drop the Wright women from their roles as fashion ambassadors.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019ll give them something to be more arrogant about,\u2019 my source quips.<\/p>\n

But winning back their fans might take longer than they may have hoped<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0There\u00a0has been much unpleasant whinging within the Wright family this week. The powerful Essex clan, who perhaps long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,97,96,5690,44961,478,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-475720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-mark-wright","tag-michelle-keegan","tag-tvshowbiz","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}