The secret Essex hierarchy: Our snitch reveals the REAL rating and rivalry of actuality stars, together with whose marriage ceremony was hit by a drunken scandal, who’s seen as ‘hideous’ – and the reality about Mark Wright he will not need us sharing

Mansion with a swimming pool? Tick. Ghastly sports car? Tick. Turkey teeth? Big tick. Fake tan? Even bigger tick.

Welcome to Essex, where the competition to be the richest and most famous is the fiercest in the land.

Money and status are everything here and perhaps most famous is Mark Wright, the television presenter who first found fame on The Only Way is Essex along with his equally ambitious older sister, Jessica – only to be followed into the limelight by their mum Carol.

Here the Mail reveals who the Wright family’s rivals are, and who really is Essex’s most rich and powerful family.

DANNY AND DANI DYER, 48 & 28

Fortune: £15million

Instagram followers: 5.2 million

Sadly for the Wrights, it’s actually the Dyers who top the Essex charts for wealth. While actor Danny, currently starring in blockbuster movie Marching Powder, is worth £11million, his daughter, Dani, has accumulated £4million, thanks to her appearance on Love Island.

Dani, who won the 2018 series of the ITV reality show with her then boyfriend Jack Fincham, now has a super-rich footballer fiancee, Jarrod Bowen, who earns £125,000-a-week playing for West Ham.

Danny, 48, and Dani, 28, have 5.2million Instagram followers between them and each have flashy homes in Essex.

Probably much to Mark Wright’s dismay, Danny is everyone’s favourite Essex ‘geezer’ after making his name in the cult classics The Football Factory, Human Traffic and The Business before joining EastEnders in 2013 as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter.

Dani has boosted her bank balance with a three-part ITVBe reality series Jack & Dani: Life After Love Island. Despite the couple splitting, she has appeared as a guest reporter on BBC’s The One Show and secured endorsement deals and clothing lines with Matalan, In The Style, and Little Mistress.

In 2020 she launched a range of lip products for Vaseline.

MARK WRIGHT, 38

Fortune: £10million

Instagram followers: 2 million

Mark won’t like this but his story is one of rags to riches. When he joined TOWIE the Wrights were not rich, in fact they were far less wealthy than his best friend (and TOWIE co-star) James Argent’s family.

But he soon made his name after the very first episode of ITV reality show TOWIE in 2010 and despite being portrayed as a love rat during his romance with Lauren Goodger, he’s become the show’s highest earner.

Mark left TOWIE at the end of the third series in 2011 and flew to Australia the following month to take part in the 11th series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here where he finished as runner-up. 

In 2014, he beat big sister Jess to a spot on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and in the same year went to work in LA on American entertainment news programme Extra.

When it was axed after three years his TOWIE associates were much amused. ‘There were a lot of giggles when he lost that job,’ said one of his former co-stars. ‘It must have totally wrecked his ego, hee hee.’

Mark, 38, had the last laugh when he started dating actress Michelle Keegan, whose success in Coronation Street, Our Girl and Ten Pound Poms now far eclipses her husband’s. 

Today, the couple live in their £3.5million Essex mansion and Mark has a property business. Earlier this month they welcomed their first child, a daughter called Palma.

JOEY ESSEX, 34

Net Worth: £8 million

Instagram followers: 2 million

During his stint on I’m A Celeb in 2013, Joey Essex revealed he was so dopey that he couldn’t tell the time, but thanks to nabbing Katie Price’s former agent ‘Dirty’ Dave Reed, he has amassed an eye-watering £8million fortune. Rival Mark Wright, however, thinks Joey is a ‘bit of a dimwit’.

His mother Tina Sims took her own life when he was a child and, as cousin of TOWIE royalty Chloe Sims and nephew of top Essex boxing trainer Tony Sims, he is regarded as of Essex’s most lovable rogues after early appearances in TOWIE.

He followed those up with stints on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Splash!, The Jump, Celebs Go Dating, Five Star Hotel, Celebrity MasterChef and Dancing on Ice. Last year he took a risk by attempting to woo a younger audience by taking part in the All Stars version of Love Island.

The move worked and he appeared on American reality show Selling Sunset. During an interview on American television he told the hosts that he was ‘perfect husband material’ and had some ‘very exciting projects in America’ in 2025.

‘Mark needs to watch out, Joey is coming for him,’ says my Essex snitch.

MRS HINCH, 35

Net worth: £7 million

Instagram followers: 4.8 million

Cleaning guru Sophie Hinchliffe rocketed to fame with her Instagram account Mrs Hinch Home back in 2018 and quickly became best friends with fellow Essex mumfluencer and TV star Stacey Solomon. 

In 2022, and inspired by Stacey’s move to the Essex countryside, she used her earnings to buy her own rural idyll, Hinch Farm. In 2023 a mega-money collection with supermarket giant Tesco which included bedlinen and loungewear ended and last year she ramped up her partnership with cleaning giant Joy of Clean, parent company of Bold, Lenor, Flash and Fairy.

Sophie, who has three children with husband Jamie, is listed as the highest paid influencer and cleanfluencer in the UK.

While she is in the upper echelons of the Essex rich and power list, she has some critics. ‘All she does is clean for a living and what happens when people learn how to do it themselves?’ says one.

STACEY SOLOMON, 35

Net worth: £6 million

Instagram: 6 million followers

When Stacey appeared on The X Factor in 2009, a member of Simon Cowell’s team rang to tell me: ‘There’s a 17-year-old single mum who is going to be a star.’

How right they were. Stacey, now 35, who used to buy her clothes at Dagenham market, is today worth £6million thanks to winning over the British public on I’m A Celeb and Loose Women.

Her star power increased in 2016 when she began dating EastEnders actor Joe Swash, 43, with whom she now has three children along with her two boys from previous relationships and Joe’s son with his ex.

Her BBC show Sort Your Life Out last year won a National Television Award and she is the highest paid mumfluencer on Instagram where she regularly posts pictures of family life inside £1.5million Pickle Cottage.

Last year the family filmed their new reality show Stacey and Joe which will air on BBC iPlayer from April 1. Stacey currently has big-money brand partnerships with Abbott Lyon jewellery, George Home at Asda and REHAB haircare having previously worked with Dunelm, Superdrug and Freemans.

‘So many people want to hate Stacey but it is just impossible,’ says an Essex insider. ‘As for Joe, he’s a bit of a prat.’

GEMMA COLLINS, 44

Net worth: £5 million

Instagram followers: 2.2 million

The GC, as Gemma calls herself, became an instant hit with viewers with her iconic one liners and arguments on reality TV show TOWIE from 2011 to 2019. 

She’s now the undisputed meme queen following her TV appearances on Celebrity Big Brother where a hilarious clip her shouting at fellow contestant, Darren Day: ‘I’m claustrophobic Darren.’ has been reproduced, countless times.

Then there was her face-planting fall on Dancing on Ice, leaving the I’m A Celebrity Jungle on day three and falling through the stage while presenting a gong at the Radio 1 Teen Awards.

While her antics have been entertaining, Gemma has always been a savvy businesswomen and has her own fashion empire called the Gemma Collins Collection.

Home is a £1.3 million mansion but she regularly buys houses, improves them and ‘flips’ them as an extra income stream. She once made £75k in one day with sponsored Instagram posts.

‘Gemma is the most caring and generous woman you could meet, but don’t cross her because she will be an absolute nightmare,’ says a friend of hers.

‘She hasn’t made this kind of money by being a snowflake.’

SAM FAIERS, 34

Net worth: £5 million

Instagram followers: 2.5 million

‘Hideous’ is the word so often used to describe Sam to me but I rather liked her when I first met her back in 2010 when she found fame on TOWIE (striking up a romance with Joey Essex the following year). The same year she got a book deal to write her memoirs.

She had a boutique called Minnie’s with big sister Billie on Brentwood High Street but left it to appear on Celebrity Big Brother in 2014.

Later that year she met now husband Paul Knightley, following her split from Joey, and had son Paul in 2015, documenting her journey into parenthood with her own TV show The Baby Diaries.

 The show was so successful that TV bosses signed her up for a follow-up series, The Mummy Diaries, and she gave birth to daughter Rosie in 2017.

A book on motherhood followed, then her own range of prams, and a collaboration with high street store River Island children’s wear. She has recently been promoting her collagen brand.

BILLIE SHEPHERD, 35

Net worth: £4 million

Instagram followers: 2.6 million

Like her little sister Sam Faiers, Billie Shepherd, 35, rose to fame on reality show TOWIE but is far less well-known.

Nevertheless, she remained on the show until 2016 during which time she got engaged to long-term partner Greg, gave birth to daughter Nelly in 2014, while juggling being a director at Minnie’s Boutique.

She gave birth to son Arthur in 2017, and joined Sam on the ITV series, The Mummy Diaries. Sam quit in 2021 but Billie stayed on until the series ended last year.

Child number three, Margot, arrived in December 2022. She also appeared on Dancing on Ice in 2021 but had to pull out after a fall. She’s bolstered her income with fashion and brand collaborations.

The sisters’ stepfather, Dave Chatwood, was jailed for four years in 2012 for his part in a £1.1 million gold-bullion plot.

There was more scandal at Billie’s luxury 2019 wedding in the Maldives, which she sold to OK! Magazine. Fellow holidaymakers complained of ‘film crews and yobs causing bedlam’, and stepdad Dave nearly didn’t make it, after being kicked off the flight out for being drunk.

ZARA MCDERMOTT, 28

Net worth: £3million

Instagram followers: 2 million

Bubbly Essex girl Zara, often described to me as ‘the loveliest woman in a not always nice world’, quit her job as a government policy advisor to enter the Love Island villa in 2018.

She subsequently hosted a series of BBC documentaries, including The Idaho Murders: Trial by TikTok, and Ibiza: Secrets of the Party Island. She also appeared on Made in Chelsea, alongside her now ex boyfriend Sam Thompson, between 2019 and 2020.

More reality TV followed on The X-Factor: Celebrity in 2019 and in 2023, Strictly Come Dancing, where she was famously kicked by professional dance partner, Graziano Di Prima.

Zara is very much in demand and can command tens of thousands of pounds for online collaborations. And with her new relationship with former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson, worth an estimated £30million, her power and influence has rocketed.

PETE WICKS, 37

Net Worth: £3 million

Instagram followers: 1.9 million

Pete has his astute agents at Mockingbird talent agency to thank for his fortune because when he arrived on TOWIE back in 2015, he was hardly box office.

Since then, he has starred on just about every reality show going including Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, Celebs Go Dating – twice – Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity SAS, and The Real Full Monty.

But it was his appearance on last year’s Strictly Come Dancing that made him Essex hot property.

‘We didn’t see this coming,’ mused one former co-star.

Recently split from girlfriend Love Island contestant Maura Higgins, he remains best friends with Zara McDermott’s ex, Sam Thompson. His recent autobiography, Never Enough, became a Sunday Times bestseller.

But Pete isn’t all about the cash. He also fronts a documentary Pete Wicks: For Dog’s Sake where he works with the Dogs Trust to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome vulnerable dogs.

LUCY MECKLENBURGH, 33

Net worth: £3 million

Instagram followers: 1.7 million

As one of the original TOWIE stars, Lucy remained on the series until 2013 when she quit to become a fitness guru and influencer – leading to some lucrative collaborations – which saw her earnings soar.

In 2017 she took part in Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls where she met former Coronation Street actor Ryan Thomas. The couple have two children and an impressive property portfolio, the renovations of which she profiles on Instagram.

Last year Ryan won Dancing on Ice, securing their position as an Essex power couple. But it’s her dad Paul, a successful property developer, who persuaded her to buy her first flat at 21, to whom she credits her path to success.

LAUREN GOODGER, 38

Net worth: £2 million

Instagram followers: 948,000

Lauren was one of the first TOWIE stars to make £1 million thanks to her on-off 12 year relationship with the show’s resident lothario Mark Wright.

Big money magazine deals led to a stint on Celebrity Big Brother, Dancing on Ice and Celebs Go Dating. She gave birth to her first daughter Larose in 2021 and tragically lost her second daughter, Loren, shortly after giving birth.

It’s fair to say her star has faded over the years – there was an unsavoury episode last year when she, and other influencers, were prosecuted by the Financial Conduct Authority for promoting an unauthorised investment scheme. She’s since returned to TOWIE.

CHLOE SIMS, 43

Net worth: £1.5 million

Instagram followers: 1.2 million

Although not one of the originals, Chloe Sims holds the record for the longest serving TOWIE cast member. Mum to a 20-year-old daughter, she is the cousin of Joey Essex. Her sisters, Frankie and Demi, also appeared on the show.

The sisters quit in 2022 to try their luck in LA after signing a reported £1million deal with Only Fans TV for their reality show, House of Sims.

While Frankie and Demi have since returned to TOWIE, Chloe remains in the US, where last year she enjoyed a four-month romance with Lionel Richie’s son Miles.

There have been brand deals on Instagram and earlier this month she launched ‘The Honest Edit’ on YouTube where she shares her home life, travel, beauty and skincare tips. She still returns to Essex regularly and remains close to Gemma Collins.

JAMES ‘ARG’ ARGENT, 37

Net worth: £1 million

Instagram followers – 847,000

As the best mate of Mark Wright and the on-off boyfriend of Gemma Collins, James left TOWIE in 2018. He then joined the reality TV circuit with appearances on The Jump, Celebrity Coach Trip and Celebs on the Farm.

Open about his past battles with alcohol and food, he now makes most of his money as a singer with ‘The Arg band’ with gigs in Essex, London and the Costa del Sol.

Last summer he went public with his new girlfriend, former Miss Sweden Nicoline Artursson. The couple often go on double dates with Mark Wright and his wife Michelle Keegan.