Multicoloured. Cheerful. Cheeky! That’s how darts fans know their world champion Peter Wright (52), who let the tournament freak out as the Grinch on the first day of the World Cup. But a few weeks ago, the Scot’s arrows completely took a back seat…
The reason: the health of his wife Joanne.
On November 29, three weeks before the start of the Darts World Championship, Wright wrote on Twitter: “Joanne is now back in hospital undergoing further testing. Had to go to ER yesterday to get back for CT scan today, now Jo will be admitted to a ward if a bed is available.”
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The darts champion’s wife had only recently been hospitalized with severe pain. For almost two weeks. The diagnosis was a long time coming. After the gallbladder was removed, it was found that a slit had formed in the bile duct and that fluid was leaking out.
For this reason, “Snakebite” had canceled its participation in the “Players Championship Finals”. An darts was for the world champion, who easily won his World Cup opener 3-0 on Thursday evening, not to think. He wanted to help his wife, but was not allowed to see her for days due to her health situation.
“Yeah, it’s better now. She has received good news that she is over the worst. That stays in my head and I can concentrate on darts again,” Wright said in an interview with BILD shortly before the World Cup.
Wright: “It was a terrible time for all of us. We didn’t know what was happening. But we’ve been through the worst. She’s on the mend! That’s the most important.”
Joanne will be at his side again at the tournament in London.
As in the previous year, the Wrights have booked an Airbnb house and are not staying in the official player hotel. After the reason for this was mainly the corona chaos last year, it is now his wife’s health.
Jo’ is better – great relief for Wright and his fans!
She is the reason for his arrow career. They have a particularly close relationship with one another.
And the trained hairdresser takes care of her husband’s hair, which has made him so famous, for around two hours before the games. It is also she who prepares the outfits.
As a bird of paradise “Snakebite”, Wright’s nickname, he made the darts breakthrough at the 2014 World Cup. He played his way into the final and won the hearts of the fans as a colorful Iroquois man. Before that, his career was threatened several times because the Scot didn’t shoot enough gravel with his arrows.
Peter Wright is famous for his flashy outfits. At the start of the 2023 World Cup on Thursday he walked onto the stage as “Grinch”.
After losing the World Cup in 1995, Wright even gave up his darts career for about ten years. He only played local tournaments and kept his head above water with odd jobs (construction worker, tire fitter, truck driver). He was even unemployed for a while.
“I was living on about £14 a week after bills,” he revealed two years ago after his first world title. Only his wife still believed in him.
Now he stood by her side in the most difficult times.
