HARRIS, John

The Welsh Posh and Becks

This paper looks at the relationship between the singer Charlotte Church and the rugby player Gavin Henson.  Church found fame as a child singing star and was already an established celebrity when first linked with the athlete in 2005 at a time when Henson was slowly emerging as a recognizable figure in Wales.  When rumours of a romance between the two first featured in the Welsh media the story attracted significant interest in a country where rugby is the national sport.  Centered around the metropolitan core of the capital city of Cardiff, ‘Henchurch’ was quickly positioned as a distinctly Welsh version of Brand Beckham and became front-page news.   As they embarked upon a serious relationship that produced two children, ‘Henchurch’ featured more and more in British publications as their status and celebrity profiling became legitimized beyond the narrow borders of Wales.  By looking at the ways in which discourses of nation, gender and place were framed within media narratives, we can begin to understand more about the power dynamics shaping certain celebrity spheres.  This celebrity coupling offers an interesting case to explore the ways in which the coming together of two individuals from different areas of popular culture formed a power couple that assumed a status far removed from the sum of its constituent parts.

 

Dr John Harris is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management at Glasgow Caledonian University.