While many supportive partners might consider uprooting their life and moving abroad for their other half’s new job, there are only a small handful who might be able to empathise with Taylor Ward.
The summer of 2023 saw the social media influencer, who was born and raised in Manchester, confronted with news that her husband – then-Manchester City star Riyad Mahrez – had booked a lucrative £30million move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli.
The bombshell was delivered swiftly and decisively, with Ward forced to confront the new reality of living in Jeddah in front of cameras during the first season of Amazon Prime’s Married To The Game, a reality show centred around the lives of women married to Premier League footballers.
‘I feel like everyone is going to be all over the place, it’s just going to be so hard, life is going to be so different,’ Ward told her sister Darby in tears.
The 27-year-old added: ‘I feel like it is so hard, there are times I can’t, I just don’t like. I don’t like it, I don’t have a choice.’
Ward was well within her rights to have had concerns at the time – a report by Mail Online published in 2024 alleged that wives married to players plying their trade in the Gulf State’s top division had suffered public abuse, and been refused entry into shops and restaurants because of how they are dressed.
Taylor Ward is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and frequently shows off her lavish lifestyle to her legions of social media followers
The social media influencer followed husband Riyad Mahrez to the Gulf state when he moved to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli
Starring in the second season of Amazon’s Married To The Game, Ward shows off her home in Saudi Arabia
But like the wives of a number of the league’s top stars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo’s partner Georgina Rodriguez, have adjusted to the move amid the culture clash in the conservative absolute monarchy and made their new home their own.
Ward, who features in Married To The Game’s second series which premieres on April 8, admits that although she appeared to have struggled with the move away from England, the reality is much more harmonious than first captured on camera.
‘I actually love Saudi now,’ Ward said. ‘I have people coming out to visit me all the time. My friends fly out from the UK, and my mum and dad live in Dubai, so they come over and that’s really nice.’
Part of the adjustment is eased, Ward adds, by regular travel to England – where her jewelry brand Astalia is based – and Dubai, as well as other exotic locations Ward is filmed visiting via private jet.
‘We’re kind of here, there and everywhere,’ she continues. ‘I still go back to England for work so I’m not here for the longest stints of time. Currently, this is the longest I’ve actually been here. I’ve not been home to England since the beginning of December.
‘I just don’t unpack anymore. I have one case that I keep packed at all times with spare toiletries and plug adaptors and things like that because you just never know where you’re going to be, things are always changing.
‘But it’s nice to be in the sun, the people here are so lovely, and I’ve got my bearings a lot more now. I’ve got the kids in nursery, I found a really nice gym, just little things that make day to day life a lot nicer and easier.’
Also adding to Ward’s new found love of life in the Kingdom are the extensive renovations the influencer has carried out on the house she shares with Mahrez.
The influencer – a social media sensation with nearly 3million followers on Instagram
Ward documented the extensive renovation process on her Instagram profile
The enormous mansion in the Kingdom is described in the series as being one of the smaller options they were shown
Ward has described the tasteful neutral interiors as being a difficult choice in light of her two-year-old daughter Mila
The mansion is a neutral fantasy of opulent creams and purple-veined marble, decorated by Ward herself and her mother, Real Housewives of Cheshire star Dawn Ward.
‘The house is amazing now,’ Ward adds. ‘She’s done such a good job. It’s such a big house, it’s taken a long time to get it finished, so we’re still working on it now.’
Big is the operative word – fans are treated to lavish shots of countless living rooms, a vast Birkin-bagged filled wardrobe, an outdoor pool, and most surprisingly, two kitchens: one for show, and one, where Ward actually cooks, to get ‘dirty’.
‘I think that’s just the culture out here,’ Ward suggested. ‘I probably would have just had one big kitchen and had everyone in there – the more the merrier. But the people here all have chefs and so every house we looked at had two kitchens.
‘Our biggest problem was finding a house small enough! The houses were so big, me and Riyad were walking around them like we were at the Trafford Centre.
‘I was like, “What are we going to do in here? We’re going to get lost! We’re not even going to be able to find each other.” It sounds crazy, and it’s an unbelievable house, don’t get me wrong. It’s huge and it’s amazing, but this was actually one of the smallest ones we found.
Ward added: ‘But equally, we did need the bedroom space, and we needed the spare rooms, because we constantly have people coming to stay. Riyad’s friends, my friends, my family. There’s always a hundred of us here, it’s never empty, so it definitely gets good use.’
Despite the house looking the very picture of a luxurious footballer’s pad, Ward was quick to insist that her day-to-day life in Saudi is as close to relatable as it gets.
Ward and Mahrez with their daughter Mila along with Riyad’s two older children from a previous relationship at their second wedding ceremony in 2023
Most extravagant is Ward and Mahrez’s show kitchen, a pristine vision in expensive marble
The mansion was decorated by Ward herself and her mother, Real Housewives of Cheshire star Dawn Ward
There is no shortage of supplies in the Ward-Mahrez house, with nothing impossible to procure in Saudi’s second city
‘A lot of the time it’s just very normal, and we do very normal things,’ She continued. ‘We’re not always super glamorous. Most of the time in Saudi I’ve got no make-up on, I’m running the kids around. It’s not always these amazing trips and huge weddings and whatever.
‘We’re also very normal, and we do very normal things. If you’ve ever seen me getting off a flight at Manchester airport after the night flight with three kids, you’ll know that!
‘It’s just been the school holidays and when I’ve got all the kids here, it’s absolute carnage,’ Ward stressed. ‘Our house is an absolute mad house. I don’t always have it all figured it out. It’s quite hectic and all over the place.
‘We do have some amazing times, don’t get me wrong, and we are privileged, but equally we are also very normal, and it’s not always glamorous like people think.’
Similarly unglamorous is the lack of stability that life in Jeddah brings, Ward adds. With constant travel while trying to establish a base in her new country, Ward and Mahrez ‘don’t know whether (they’re) coming or going.’
‘It can be lonely,’ she admits. ‘I’ve had to move away from all my family and live on the other side of the world, in a country that’s completely different culturally.
The series shows off a number of living spaces in the opulent Saudi Arabian mansion
On her Instagram, Ward is shown as being highly organised – whether it comes to her own closet or her daughter’s
Fans are treated to lavish shots of multiple bedrooms and living areas throughout the show
‘A lot of my work stuff is on hold as long as we’re here. Riyad’s career comes first as that’s our main income.
‘And the players sacrifice a lot as well. Riyad’s missed family members’ weddings and all that kind of stuff. He can’t just have a day off at the weekend because it’s his friend’s birthday and he wants to go.
‘Don’t get me wrong, he’s in a position that most boys dream of, but it doesn’t come without the sacrifice.’
In that way, more couples moving abroad might relate to Ward and Mahrez’s experience in Saudi than they might expect.
Married To The Game is available exclusively on Prime Video on April 8.
