One of darts’ biggest names starts his 2026 Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship campaign on Wednesday – and his ex-glamour model wife will be watching
07:00, 17 Dec 2025
Sammi Marsh was once a walk-on girl who accompanied her future husband to the oche(Image:
IG
)
Samantha Marsh-Wade was faced with cruel claims she was a gold digger when the stunning blonde started dating one of darts’ biggest names.
In another life, Sammi had been a glamour model – showing off her jaw-dropping looks inside the pages of lads mags such as Zoo, all while teasing fans with her own calendars that she would release each year. Sammi would even pose for the Daily Star before she entered the darting world as a walk-on girl when her agent found her a gig in Nottingham.
And she would soon meet her future husband, ‘The Machine’ James Wade, with the pair starting to date in 2013. One of the greatest ever darts players to have never won a world championship and the best left-handers in the history of the sport, Wade was formerly known as ‘Spectacular’ – and his new girlfriend was certainly that too.
Sammi Marsh was a glamour model before she met darts star James Wade
“I was stood in a doorway chatting to a couple of friends when I spotted her inside with another of the walk-on girls,” Wade revealed. “I said to my mates, ‘She’s really nice’ and they laughed, ‘You’ve got no chance there, mate.’
“I said, ‘You reckon? Let’s see…’ so I knocked on the window to attract her attention and said, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but can I have your number please?’ She thought I was talking about her mate, but I said, ‘No, I meant YOUR number.’
“She wrote something down and said, ‘I think that’s my number’, and we’ve all been there, haven’t we?
Sammi Marsh posing in lingerie early in her modelling career(Image:
IG
)Sammi Marsh even posed for the Daily Star(Image:
formphotos.co.uk
)
“You know, you give someone a row of digits which is nothing like your number to make them go away, but when I rang it a couple of days later, Samantha answered and I went up to see her in Blackpool.”
Wade, 42, who is said to be worth around £3m, had to fight accusations that Sammi, 35, was a gold digger when their relationship became public. He said: “When we first went out, there was the whole thing about ‘Samantha is only with you for your money’.
“It actually made me a little bit paranoid in the beginning. Then I realised what family Samantha comes from and that was not her intention. All the doubters had to shut up when they realised we were so strong – she is my rock.”
Sammi Marsh married James Wade in 2015(Image:
formphotos.co.uk
)
In 2015, the pair would tie the knot – with Wade joking he knew the exact moment she was the woman for him: “The first time I got one of my cravings for a kebab I said to her ‘you probably don’t eat kebabs’.
“She said she loved them and I thought this woman is made for me.” He added: “Our wedding was lovely, a beautiful day. Being married is great.
“I feel good about my life and my game. I have stability in my life. I have things right at home. Sammi does so much people don’t see. She is a very busy bee. We are pretty much inseparable.”
Wade once defended his wife from ‘gold-digger’ allegations(Image: John Alevroyiannis)James Wade in action(Image: David Inderlied/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
The pair are so inseparable they have each others names tattooed on their bodies; Sammi has James on her leg and Wade has Sammi on his chest.
Wade said: “We knew each other for only three weeks but we thought we should have something done.
“I have ‘Sammi’ on my chest — I wouldn’t be stupid enough to put a tattoo on me without knowing that we felt right together.”
Sammi has had a change of career this days, finding time to start a family with Wade after walk-on girls were controversially axed by the PDC in 2018. The pair share two children, Arthur born in 2018, and Alfred, who arrived in 2022.
The couple are now inseparable
Sammi is now also her husband’s manager. And she’ll be one very special onlooker when Wade starts his 2026 campaign on Wednesday against Japanese star Ryusei Azemoto.
When the pair took part in an interview with Sammi asking the questions back in 2019, she asked what his greatest moment in darts was.
Wade answered “Meeting my wife Samantha”, to which she replied “You had to say that”, before The Machine added: “Well, it probably was.”
