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It’s difficult to know where to begin with a not-so-quick guide to Celebrity Traitors’ breakout star, Joe Marler. The BBC series has introduced a wider public to the tattooed, 18-stone-plus former England rugby union player – fans won over by his quick-witted humour, allied to a direct, confrontational form of questioning and an uncanny knack for detective work.
Not all viewers, though, will be au fait with his backstory; the 35-year-old dungaree-wearing ex-prop forward admitted he was mistaken for a sound technician by his fellow celebrities when first on set, and then asked whether he played rugby league when he revealed his previous 15-year career. For those who know rugby union, however, Marler’s style on the show has come as little surprise, save it being slightly toned down for a wider public audience.
The background
Marler, from Heathfield in East Sussex, started out playing for Haywards Heath, captained England at under-18 level and went on to a career with Harlequins on the outskirts of south-west London, a stone’s throw from Twickenham. His schtick was the loud front-rower with a slightly edgy undertone, a dollop of eccentricity and a penchant for winding people up; including his own teammates.
Over the years there were two domestic Premiership titles with Quins and 95 caps for England with whom he reached a Rugby World Cup final in 2019. A landscape gardener before his rugby career took off – which might explain experiments with a different set of clippers on his hairstyles – Marler is married to Daisy, and they live in Sussex with their four children.
The hot water
At times Marler has seemingly been unable to help himself with on-field chat and eyebrow-raising antics. In 2020 he was found guilty of “grabbing, twisting or squeezing” Alun Wyn Jones’s genitals during an England v Wales Six Nations match and banned for 10 weeks. The brush with Jones was not the first time he had got into disciplinary trouble against Wales. In 2016 he was banned for two matches and fined £20,000 for calling Samson Lee “Gyspy Boy”. Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, apologised after initially playing down Marler’s comment as “just banter” and then released a statement saying: “I don’t condone racism of any kind.”
Even the week Marler ultimately retired from England duty was framed around a throwaway comment on social media when he suggested the New Zealanders’ pre-match ritual, the haka, should be consigned to the bin. The remarks fired up the All Blacks, who duly dispatched England, with Marler having not even played. The social media post was his parting shot after leaving camp for personal reasons having decided he could not continue in international rugby.
The humour
When he wasn’t getting himself into trouble, Marler’s turn of phrase and quirky humour has lit up the sport. Discussing his post-retirement career earlier this year, Marler referred to his taking up of padel and new exercise as a necessity, describing himself as looking like “a melted wheelie bin”. When asked about his rooming preferences on tour, he referred to fellow prop Mako Vunipola as “Snorlax” and Tom Curry’s weird sleep-walking habits.
There was an OnlyFans account dedicated to pictures of his feet, while after a heavy Champions Cup defeat for Harlequins by Clermont Auvergne in 2019, the front-rower’s surreal reflections on a 53-21 thrashing went viral. “We’ve got another week to get back on the horse,” Marler said, warming to his theme with a horse “impression”. “I’m sorry about the performance last week … but I’m going to give a better performance at home against Bath,” added Marler’s imaginary, “slightly Irish” equine. A podcast that originally began as The Joe Marler Show morphed into the more comedic Joe Marler’s Things People Do, focusing on quirky careers.
The hair
Hats and flat caps have been a thirtysomething addition: for the younger Marler, hair was the way he said he tried to forge his identity in a well-heeled sport that sometimes felt alien to him. Think multi-coloured mohawks as loud as his personality or carving Jolly Hog Sausage into the side of his shaven head to promote Quins teammate Olly Kohn’s nascent business. The irony of the company’s “a proper porker” slogan was not lost sitting atop the mountainous prop’s head.
The teammate
Much has been made of rugby’s team ethos being the foundation of Marler’s success on the programme, although on retiring, the player himself suggested he hadn’t always been the best colleague, admitting: “I’d been horrible to a number of the teammates, so they weren’t going to make an effort … I felt like this bad smell in the corner that at any moment could say something.”
Still, his scrum coach at Quins, the Wales legend Adam Jones, described him as “misunderstood”, saying he was a lovely bloke, protective of his friends, who just needed reminding every now and then to keep it all in check. Jones’s method was to play a video of Wales defeating England in the 2013 grand slam match in which Marler played. His career post-retirement has also seen him become performance director with Team England Rugby, a body responsible for the welfare of players, negotiating with the Rugby Football Union and clubs over playing time, rest and recovery, suggesting the esteem he is held in by former teammates.
The success
Despite sometimes being the centre of attention for the wrong reasons, Marler became indispensable to England: he was a technically brilliant loosehead prop with the ability to play on the other side of the scrum. He tried to retire at 28 only for then England coach Eddie Jones to tempt him back for another 34 caps, including an appearance off the bench in the 2019 World Cup final, when England lost to South Africa.
In 2021 he withdrew from another Eddie Jones squad, but again returned to the international fray, before hanging up his boots once and for all in 2024. “The first teammate I told was Dan Cole,” Marler said of his final decision. “We were sharing a room at the England hotel. I hugged him, he hugged me. The conversation went a bit like this: ‘I love you, mate.’ ‘I love you too.’ ‘What’s up?’ ‘I’m done, mate.’ ‘I know you are’.”
The advocate
In his autobiography Loose Head: Confessions of an (un)professional rugby player, and in subsequent interviews, Marler revealed some of his behaviour masked mental health issues. He opened up on his depression, telling Donald McRae how he accepted help after smashing up his kitchen when his wife was upset he hadn’t done enough to avoid a squirrel in the road (he didn’t run it over). Medication, therapy and a change in direction followed. Now an ambassador for the charity Calm (Campaign against living miserably); there was a documentary, too, with Sky called Big Boys Don’t Cry, while his podcast also offered a space for men to speak about their mental health.
After retiring he said he would undo some of the ways he treated teammates in the past, telling a recent podcast: “In that environment … you have to be that alpha, it’s the toxic masculinity often described as poisonous … I look back at that and go, fuck, the amount of people I’ve made uncomfortable – I don’t want to do that now, I don’t want to be like that now.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
