Walking in My Choos

Artist: Tsiki

 

Loui Fish is a popular lingerie super model, now a mother of two boys, Luke and Zeke. Loui was born in 1973 in Paarl, a conservative Afrikaner town adjacent to Cape Town. She comes from a humble background. She states in advance that her mother has a “history with bad boys.”

 

 

Loui became a popular girl with superstars by dating rugby star James Small with whom she made weekly newspaper headlines. Prior to James,she had had a brief romance with Afrikaans music star Steve Hofmeyr. During her time with James Small, drugs and physical abuse became a common thing in and outside their bedroom. They were always in papers for the wrong reasons. She became extremely popular when she met Mark Fish, a super star playing for Lazio in Italy, a white player who had helped Orlando Pirates become African champions in 1995, and went further to help Bafana Bafana be crowned 1996 AFCON champions. Loui and Mark soon got married and became a celebrity couple. Mark was dubbed the James Small of soccer! In this book, Walking In My Choos, Loui tells it the way it is, she met Mark and fell in love instantly after a date at Sun City. She moved in with Mark in Rome where Mark had been staying with Michelle, his previous girlfriend. Soon Loui gave birth to two sons Luke and Zeke.

 

 

Mark was fast becoming a globally recognized star; he attracted interest in England where he played for Bolton Wanderers and Charlton Athletic. Loui discusses the glamour of marriage to a superstar, the perks that are synonymous with celebrity life; meeting the Beckhams, Marcel Dessaily amongst others, living next to music star George Michael, and becoming friends with fashion icon Jimmy Choo. Loui discusses her penchant for finer things in life, the mansions Mark bought in England, their stolen jewellery that cost £2 million. In the midst of all this Mark, started a life foreign to Loui; he began to sleep out, women of all sorts came into the picture, cash withdrawn at strip clubs and brothels in the wee hours of the morning, and liquor running Mark’s life. When Mark finally retired, Mark wanted to relocate permanently back to South Africa, more trouble brewed. Loui did not want to move back home just yet, she wanted to continue with the glamorous life in England, the expensive lifestyle.

 

 

Mark was under pressure from sponsors back home and saw it as an opportunity to make a living after football. He had a television job waiting for him and a few investment opportunities. Lies, deceit and cheating became an anthem in the family when they relocated after a protracted resistance from Loui. She discusses how much she loves Mark up to this day but also stresses how Mark loved her. The problem, she says, is that Mark refused to zip his pants, and alcohol ran his life especially after retirement.

 

 

Loui portrays herself as an innocent wife who never cheated on Mark Fish in the 10 years they were together, although she mentions she almost kissed one of their bodyguards who had become close to her when she was miserable and lonely in London while Mark was sleeping with prostitutes in South Africa under the pretext that he was busy with sponsors’ work. She writes that she had almost everything a young woman or wife could think of, including a R10 million three story mansion in the leafy suburb of Mooikloof, Pretoria. Here she took in her best friend Petunia, who was struggling financially.Loui’s kids loved Petunia, but tragedy struck them when Mark and Petunia fell in love, with Loui leaving the mansion while Petunia stayed! Petunia had been falling pregnant with discreet abortions carried out, Mark paying for them. Eventually Mark and Loui divorced, and Loui got a settlement fee worth millions which could sustain her and the two boys plus a R2.4 million house in Paarl.

 

 

However during separation, Loui took to social media and met a number
of men who she fell for, some of which she calls assholes, some she regrets ever meeting. She also talks about her life with drugs and alcohol which she says was largely because of what she was going through with Mark. She also states that Mark took a drug called Coke. She says she has never met a sports person who has never taken drugs! In her conclusion, her life was not meant to be the way it turned out, she feels she deserved better. She is however thankful that she did not even fi nish her Matric, that she fulfi lled her dream in modelling, and her dream of living a life many women can only dream of. She now works as a TV presenter; she is a mother and a business woman in the fashion industry.

 

 

The message of the book to women especially who have been hurt by divorce is that there is light at the end of the tunnel, those who have been physically and emotionally abused, there’s a way out. To those who believe drugs are a solution to their problems that is a lie, and to those who think riches can solve your love life, Loui has been there and seen it all and she says it is an illusion. “It’s not the Jimmy Choo or the big mansions that bring happiness, its sharing your life with that someone special.” The book is available at CNA and Exclusive books retails at R185 (P165).