Why Sam Faiers’ former friends are ‘RELIEVED’ she’s turned her back on them. Reality star’s made millions through extraordinary means – now vile ‘****’ jibe and venomous feuds that won’t die are the talk of Essex

For reality TV star Sam Faiers, this was the trip of her dreams.

Private jet to Los Angeles. An appearance with Kim Kardashian’s hairstylist Chris Appleton at the luxury Nobu restaurant in Malibu. It was all a far cry from his humble beginnings 3,000 miles away in the Essex town of Brentwood.

Sober and sophisticated in her designer clothes, Sam projected a very different image on last year’s trip to Los Angeles to the image of her younger days in Britain, when she was an often controversial member of the cast of The Only Way is Essex.

She joined the ITV show in 2010 alongside the likes of Mark Wright, Chloe Sims, ex-fiancée Joey Essex and sister Billie. But today Sam, 34, remains in quite different company, having made a remarkable £8million thanks to her collagen beauty range Revive.

This week, it announced a new partnership with health charity Vitamin Angels, which provides supplements to fight malnutrition to vulnerable populations around the world. He was also said to have formed a firm friendship with Britain’s Got Talent’s Amanda Holden and paid the TV star what was described to me as a ‘small fortune’ to serve as Revive’s brand ambassador.

The business proved so successful that it was stocked in US stores, generating more than £13 million in sales.

But now I hear his success has created drama on his home turf, as Sam seems to have bid a permanent farewell to Essex, saying ‘he’ll never come back’; This remark ‘comforted’ at least some of his friends.

It’s no surprise that the jet-set life is more appealing to him these days. But he also finds himself in the middle of a series of fights that put him at odds with some of his once best friends.

Sam joined Essex’s Only Way in 2010, but today he has little involvement in his hometown

‘Sam has completely turned his back on Essex,’ says my source. ‘He left everything behind for something much grander.

‘His TOWIE co-stars weren’t always very nice to him. He gave as much as he got, but the fights he had at that time were very difficult. Now he just wants to move on.

‘He should look at people like Amy Childs, Lauren Goodger and others who are still using TOWIE and think ‘ha ha, I’m out of here’.

‘But Sam rubbed so many people the wrong way that he took no prisoners at times, at one point it felt like there were too many cracks. Who would want to go back to that?’

At the top of her list of downfalls are her ex-boyfriends, Joey and Mark, neither of whom follow her on social media today.

In fact, the fallout from her romance with Love Island star Joey last year also left her family turning on Sam, none more so than her cousin Chloe Sims, who revealed in 2014 that Sam had pushed her down the stairs.

Chloe was furious and Joey was in tears after the incident ended with him falling down the stairs at his home. Sam was also said to have slapped him. Joey claimed he visited her in an attempt to rekindle their relationship, but the attempt ended in a violent argument.

Chloe said: ‘Joey says you slapped him more than once. ‘He would bottle everything up and come to me, burst into tears and tell me everything.’

Sam fell out with sister Billie (left) after moving from Essex to her £2.25million dream home Surrey in 2020.

Sam is in Los Angeles promoting a new campaign for Revive Collagen with Kim Kardashian’s hairstylist Chris Appleton

‘Chloe absolutely hated Sam,’ says a friend, but today, as in the celebrity world, they follow each other on social media.

Meanwhile, her relationship with Mark Wright was complicated by allegations that he cheated on her while he was dating ex-fiancée Lauren Goodger.

Those who know Mark say he has now ‘cut her out of his life and moved on’.

‘Mark and Sam had a tumultuous relationship,’ says my source. ‘They’ve been at loggerheads for a while but she’ll be happy Mark isn’t around anymore.’

Sam even fell out with sister Billie after moving from Essex to her £2.25million dream home in Surrey in 2020 with partner Paul Knightley and children Paul, eight, and Rosie, five and two-year-old Edward.

Billie, 35, still lives in Essex with her husband Greg Shephard and their three children.

A year later Sam left ITVBe reality show The Mummy Diaries, where they appeared together for five years, leaving Billie ‘devastated’. Billie continued to produce the show on her own for several more series.

“I was a bit shocked,” Billie admitted on The Mummy Diaries. ‘I thought, “Why do you want to live in Surrey when your whole family lives in Essex? Are you trying to get away from us?” I actually think it’s quite selfish of him to move because I can’t see. [baby] As much as Paul.”

Sam’s biggest fight to date was with her former best friend Ferne McCann; The picture took place after audio footage was leaked of Ferne allegedly branding her friend a “fat jerk” in 2022.

A source adds: ‘You wonder if even Billie had trouble coping with Sam’s success at one point.

‘Sam left the show that created them, that must be hard.’

However, the sisters appear to have repaired their relationship sufficiently to return earlier this year in a new ITV2 reality show called Sam and Billie: Sibling Law (although they have already been caught up in controversy over comments made about the show, including Sam and Billie: Sibling Law, including Sam telling his children he doesn’t use sunscreen).

The sisters went through a lot together, growing up without their father, Lee, after their mother, Suzie Wells, left her when they were young. In 2012, their stepfather, Dave Chatwood, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drug and firearms offences.

They have since spoken openly about his struggle with alcoholism and his time in rehab.

But Sam’s biggest fight to date was with former best friend Ferne McCann after audio footage of Ferne allegedly branding her friend a ‘fat bastard’ was leaked in 2022. They were once inseparable and Sam stood by his best friend at school when his boyfriend was jailed for a nightclub acid attack in London in 2017.

While the clip sent shockwaves through the showbiz world, Sam’s mother Suzie was so appalled by the message that she posted it on Instagram to shame her daughter’s ex-friend. ‘This was a complete shock to me and my family,’ he wrote. ‘Ferne has become a very close family friend to all of us over the last 20 years.’

But no more. This meant the end of the women’s twenty-year friendship and, I was told, there was no going back.

‘Don’t talk to Sam about Ferne,’ warns a TOWIE insider. ‘He hates her and vice versa. This friendship will never get better.

‘There is no need to even think about what would happen if they met again.

‘It’s a very good thing that Sam and Ferne are no longer in the same county, or even the same country. ‘It’s best for everyone if Sam leaves Essex.’