When they were little, everything was a competition for Mark Wright and his younger brother Josh, and sometimes their fiercely fought contests ended in tears.
But as they get ready to run the London Marathon this weekend – in a family affair alongside their dad “Big Mark” and mum Carol – Mark and Josh hope that their sibling rivalry will be a force for good.
TOWIE legend Mark, 36, who is married to actress Michelle Keegan, 35, will be out to match 33-year-old Josh, a midfielder for Ebbsfleet United, who ran a 3hr 33min marathon last year. Mark finished after 3hr 41min.
He says: “We’re going to run it together. Put it this way, if he decided I was going too slowly and ran off by himself, I’d never speak to him again.”
Along with their sister Jess, 37, and their parents, the brothers found fame in the debut series of The Only Way Is Essex in 2010. Since then, they have used their celebrity to build an empire.
Baby sister Natalya, 22, was still in primary school when TOWIE began, and has been kept out of the limelight.
But the brothers admit they happily seized upon any opportunity for chaos when growing up.
Mark says: “We were naughty. We played knock down ginger on people’s doors, we’d play out and be cheeky kids. But we were always polite. Our teachers would say, ‘He’s a little f***** but I do like him. He is a lovely kid’.”
Carol would despair at the mess made by her football-mad sons. She recalls that when they were moving house, she went to get a planter from the garden and saw it had been “stuck together with Sellotape”.
“They’d smashed it to pieces using it as a goalpost,” she says.
Mark cuts in with another confession. “That wasn’t the worst one. Josh used to stand at the top of the staircase and I’d be at the bottom, and we had to score past each other.
“When I was 10 and he was six or seven, I hit the chandelier above his head and the whole thing came down.
“The lights were off and when they came back on, his face was soaking wet with blood. He had to get it stitched up in hospital. But it was all me toughening him up, getting him ready for his career.”
The boys’ favourite childhood film was Home Alone and they were inspired by Macaulay Culkin’s enterprising character, Kevin. Mark says: “We’d get pillowcases and sit inside them at the top of the stairs then slide down.
“At the bottom the only thing stopping you was the front door. They should have put massive warnings on that film – ‘Don’t try this at home’.”
For all their youthful rivalries, the brothers have a close bond. Josh says: “We’ve always tried to spur each other on.” In February, he and wife Hollie welcomed their second son, Dustin. He was born at just 28 weeks and is still in hospital. Josh hopes Dustin and his big brother Josh Jnr will have the same strong relationship he has with Mark.
Josh says: “I remember growing up with Mark and playing football in the garden, over the fields, in the house.
“Being the bigger brother, he helped me build physical strength, but mental strength too.” Mark says: “I never let him win… like, I’d throw him to the ground and he’d get up and score. All his friends would only ever play with people their own age so even as a kid, he’d be playing with me at three years older and having to keep up.
“It’s probably one of the reasons why he’s done so well.”
The brothers might have got some of their determination from Big Mark, 66. The former car salesman wasn’t sure he would be able to do the marathon due to a spinal injury. He says: “Back in 2002 I had a prolapsed disc so it’s a little bit harder for me to walk for five, six hours.”
But Mark isn’t impressed, joking: “My dad’s what you call a quitter. It was his knee a month ago, then his wrist and now it’s his back.”
Carol says she carries sandwiches when she is out walking with her husband to lure him round the course. She says: “I think he thinks I’ll take a chair on marathon day.” Mark Jnr was coached by Paula Radcliffe for last year’s marathon and is again running as a Flora ambassador.
But while he, Josh and Carol are eating sensibly, Big Mark has his own training diet. Mark says: “He’ll have 10 Rich Tea biscuits when he wakes up, then a slice of bread at 11am.”
While he’s not sure if he will finish the 26.2-mile course before the roads reopen, Big Mark has his heart set on a medal. He says: “If I have to stay on my feet for nine hours, I will.”
And with that, it’s time for the Wrights to get back in their Lycra and hit the road for more training miles.
* Mark Wright, the ambassador for Flora’s Making Healthy Switches campaign, is running the London Marathon with his mum, dad, and brother for the first time. For more, head to Flora’s Instagram.
