Alan Shearer’s daughter Hollie will move to Paris with her rugby player boyfriend Joe Marchant this summer.
The 26-year-old, who has earned 13 caps in the past four years, heads to the Top 14 to join Stade Francais after nine years at The Stoop.
Marchant came through the Quins academy and has made 140 appearances since his debut in 2014. Not many players have figured in every back-line position and also at hooker and open side flanker but he has done just that.
Like England teammates Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds, he has chosen to take a break from his international career in order to play abroad.
Two of Marchant’s 45 tries in the Premiership competition were scored during Quins’ victory in the semi-final against Bristol, which helped pave the way for the team’s Premiership win in 2021.
In the past, Marchant has also had brief loan stints with London Scottish as a teenager and with Auckland Blues in Super Rugby during 2020.
DID YOU KNOW? As well as is rugby achievements, Joe has a black belt in Wada Ryu Karate (2011), represented Hampshire in the discus, shot put and hammer (2010-12) and was an English Schools finalist in gymnastics in 2010.
Hollie and Joe:
The 27-year-old singer has shared multiple photos on Instagram featuring the popular Harlequins centre. The two first appeared on her Instagram together during a trip to Dubai in March 2020.
Hollie’s most successful tune, Leave Right Now, has clocked up 775,000 listens on Spotify.
That’s helped her accumulate 77,000 monthly listeners on the digital music service.
She describes herself on Instagram as “just a girl who wishes she lives in Nashville”.
Main photo credit: Hollie Shearer – Instagram
5 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Rugby Union Fans
Rugby fandom isn’t just for regular folks. There are a whole host of celebrities—including some of the biggest names in the world—who follow the beautiful game and support a team.
We’re not just talking about the celebs who send a “Go England!” tweet once every four years here. The names on this list are people who’ve gone out of their way to connect with the team they follow, and we’ve got the photos to prove it.
#1. Ilaria Dentella (Figure skater)
The Milanese skater has become semi-professional at the age of just 18 and now has an astonishing 1.4m followers on TikTok.
The journey all began aged seven when she picked up her first pair of skates, starting a passion that has only grown since.
She said: “After practising dance for a few years, I wore a pair of ice skates at the age of seven and I immediately fell in love with figure skating.
“It has been a significant part of my life ever since and I practised it for about 10 years at a national and international competitive level, and then moved two years ago to inline roller figure skating, where I immediately obtained second place in the Italian junior championships.
“It requires many hours of training, as it is a very demanding sport from a technical and athletic point of view, but it also allows you to show the artistic and emotional side of the athlete.
“The goal is not just perfection in jumps and spins, but to achieve a perfect harmony of the athletic gesture with the music, expression and costume, in order to excite the audience.”
As a competitor herself, Dentella is all too aware of the commitment and the training that goes into reaching elite level sport.
She added: “As a sportswoman I have always been interested in other sports, obviously training daily for several hours I have never been able to practise others.
“I started following rugby a few years ago on television at weekends, watching the matches of the Italian national team at the Guinness Six Nations.
“I think it is a tough sport that requires a lot of grit and commitment, and therefore has some things in common with my sport.
“I like the team spirit, which is something I don’t really get to experience as I compete in individual competitions.”