I had a Cheshire mansion, designer clothes and dream wedding but I was suffering in silence, says ex-Man Utd WAG
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A FORMER Manchester United WAG has revealed she was suffering in silence for years despite her flash lifestyle.
Danielle Gibson lived in a mansion in Cheshire with her husband footballer Darron Gibson - dressing head to toe in designer clothes, going on holidays, and flaunting her wealthy life.
But she's now revealed that her life wasn't all that it seemed.
And over the last five years, she's been training to become a psychotherapist to help others who are struggling with their mental health.
Danielle grew up in Wythenshawe, south Manchester, living with her mum and sisters in a humble high-rise flat.
But being catapulted into the lavish Cheshire lifestyle when she became a WAG brought with it its own problems.
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She met Darron, who is originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, when they were teens and he had moved to Manchester to follow his footballing dreams at Old Trafford.
But when he got injured, it put an emotional strain on their relationship - and that led to years of Danielle feeling she had to bottle up how she felt.
Danielle said: "I felt like I didn’t have a right to complain, I didn't have a right to moan because I lived in a big house in Bowdon, my kids go to private school, so I didn't say anything to anybody, I just carried on.
"I felt like I couldn't tell anyone how difficult it was because I was rich, and rich people aren't supposed to have problems."
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Danielle added: "I've lived the lavish Cheshire lifestyle for 16 years - but I was born into a single-parent family in Wythenshawe, with me and my sisters in a tenth floor flat watching my mum struggling up and down the stairs with shopping bags.
"I had a really simple life.
"But at the age of 16, I was catapulted into a new world, and everything that it brings.
"It's really important to say I'm so grateful to everything this life has given me.
"I have two kids in private school, I've flown around the world, I've had the absolute dream wedding.
"That buzz lasted for years, don't get me wrong, we lived our absolute best life. We bought our first house at 19 - but it’s not as easy as you think.
"I just wanted to be Danielle from Wythenshawe."
But things took a turn for the worst when Darron got injured while playing football.
Danielle recalls watching on TV as Darron suffered a horrific cruciate knee ligament on international duty with the Republic of Ireland that could have ended his career right then.
In the years that followed, he would continue on a treadmill of surgeries, long recoveries and then succumbing to injuries again.
Danielle said: "Shortly after the wedding was his first injury - he was playing for his country, I was pregnant with baby number two and I was watching from home.
WAG'S PAIN
"To see basically your husband's leg fall in half on the pitch when I felt like a million miles away was not a pleasant experience.
"He snapped his cruciate knee ligament, it made such a mess that they had to shave his thigh muscle and create two new ligaments behind his knee - only 20 years ago that would have written off his career.
"Physios would come for an hour in the morning, but for the other 23 hours he was at home with me.
"We had to make him a bed downstairs, he had to sleep in a metal cast, I had to take him to the toilet, to bathe him, this was for 12 months.
"That happened for the next five years, he was constantly injured, constantly fighting to get fit.
"I struggled, I felt helpless in a very chaotic world. I felt there was nothing I could do. He withdrew, rather than talking about it."
In 2017 Darron signed for Sunderland which meant he moved away from the family, leaving Danielle increasingly isolated - and her worrying how he would feel on his own too.
Danielle said: "I wasn't only a mum of two kids, one being poorly, I was a wife, a cook, a cleaner, a taxi driver, a therapist even then before I was even qualified, a mental health nurse.
"No one ever asked how I was - no football manager, no football agent, ever asked how I was."
A fateful moment would lead Danielle to finally have to face head-on the issues she was so desperately trying to hide away from - when Darron crashed his car on the way to training.
He pleaded guilty to drink-driving - for the second time, after a previous incident in 2015 - and was given a two-year community order.
Danielle said: "Saturday morning, 9am the phone rings, Darron had crashed his car on his way to training, still over the limit from the night before.
"I didn't go to the police station, or travel the four-and-a-half hours to the north east, I stayed at home in that big fancy kitchen in that big house in Bowdon with my two kids.
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"I needed to take life back into my hands because I was living in a world that was feeling out of my control."
She is planning to launch her own psychotherapy business, The Heard Hub, this year, to help others who have been in a similar situation with face-to-face and online therapy sessions.
