Marco Pierre White Jr was arrested again this week after a spate of burglaries and a decade of trouble under the spotlight.
The son of the youngest ever cook to attain the coveted three Michelin stars, Marco Jr has secured his own space in the headlines thanks to his wildly rebellious antics.
The ex-reality TV star has struggled with drug addiction, with his father reportedly paying out over £1million over the years for multiple rehab stints.
Marco and his older brother Luciano and younger sister Mirabelle grew up in London, the son of Marco Snr, who is credited as being a major influence on other leading British chefs, and his third wife Mati Conejero.
Speaking to MailOnline in 2016 Mati, who is now estranged from her son, recalled how Marco, who she calls Mini, has always seemed to struggle in the shadow of his famous father.
‘Mini never had to answer for his actions. He was a beautiful boy who grew into a beautiful young man, but his life hasn’t been easy growing up in the shadow of somebody like Marco,’ Mati said at the time.
Marco Pierre White Jr was arrested again this week after a spate of burglaries and a decade of trouble under the spotlight
The son of the youngest ever cook to attain the coveted three Michelin stars, Marco Jr has secured his own space in the headlines thanks to his wildly rebellious antics
The ex-reality TV star has struggled with drug addiction, with his father reportedly paying out over £1million over the years for multiple rehab stints
Mati said she blamed her ex husband and his fame and fortune for Marco Jnr’s ‘sense of entitlement’, explaining: ‘Marco was always too busy working to do much with them. Yet he got irritated with me if they then got bored and started playing up.’
‘Everything revolved around the restaurants. A simple, planned trip to the park would end up not happening because first we would go to meet Marco at his restaurant Frankie’s in Knightsbridge.
‘I suppose it’s not surprising Mini misbehaved so badly,’ she continued. ‘It set a pattern which continues to this day. In a way, it’s not really his fault that he doesn’t know how to behave properly and knows no social boundaries.’
‘He has grown up with a sense of entitlement. He is the son of somebody famous and therefore he is well-known and he is rich and can do what he likes.’
This unruly childhood only unravelled further when the family were forced to visit social services in Notting Hill when Marco Jr was a teenager. ‘Marco [Snr] sat there and everybody agreed we could tailor our lives and his career to fit in with the boy’s requirements. Even social services got sucked in by his charisma,’ Mati claimed.
‘This was about the time when we started divorce proceedings, when Marco did the crazy thing of sending Mini off to Thailand with a family friend. That is where he had his first tattoo done.
Marco Jr, who slammed his mother’s tell-all interview at the time, has been open about his childhood struggles, recalling in an emotional conversation in the Big Brother house how he was targeted at school because of his dad’s celebrity status.
Marco and his older brother Luciano and younger sister Mirabelle grew up in London, the son of Marco Snr and his third wife Mati Conejero
Speaking to MailOnline in 2016 Mati, who is now estranged from her son, recalled how Marco, who she calls Mini, has always seemed to struggle in the shadow of his famous father
‘It’s horrible, I never had a normal life, at eight-years old I was being bullied cos I was rich,’ he told his housemates.
Despite his early struggles, Marco Jnr has to this day retained a close relationship with his father.
But he has admitted to clashes with the chef after spending £250,000 of his father’s money on ‘prostitutes, cocaine and alcohol’ and claiming he had only agreed to take part in Big Brother to pay off debts.
After leaving school Marco dabbled in art and modelling but it was being the son of the award winning chef, the label he was desperate to be rid of as a child, that landed him is spot in the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2016 age the age of 27.
The show did little to boost his reputation though. Just days into the series, in some of the most shockingly explicit sexual scenes ever to be broadcast live on mainstream television, Marco Jnr was seen kissing and stripping off with housemate Laura Carter, taking a naked shower with her, before sucking her breast.
After leaving school Marco dabbled in art and modelling before landing a spot in the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2016
Just days into the series, in some of the most shockingly explicit sexual scenes ever to be broadcast live on mainstream TV, Marco Jnr was seen stripping off with housemate Laura Carter
The scenes sparked more than 600 complaints to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, and days later Marco was the first celeb to be booted off the show.
He exited the house to a chorus of boos and a split from his fiancée Kim Melville-Smith, following a ‘misunderstanding’ about the definition of what a ‘hall pass’ meant while he was on the reality show.
Marco’s struggles with crime began four days after his reality show exit when he appeared in a magistrate’s court to answer a drug driving charge when he was stopped in a BMW X5 and found to have 200mcg of cocaine in his system.
His multiple offences since have included shoplifting, possessing a knife, and possessing drugs.
In January 2019, he was convicted and fined after calling police officers ‘f*****s’ and ‘n******s’ while they tried to arrest him for being drunk and disorderly in a train station.
Then in June 2019, he was ordered to pay more than £1,000 for running out on a £27 restaurant bill after his debit card was declined.
The following month, it was reported he had to be dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ to a police station after being arrested for allegedly smashing windows during a row with his father in Wiltshire.
The scenes sparked more than 600 complaints to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, and days later Marco was the first celeb to be booted off the show
In July 2019, he appeared in court accused of making off from a cafe without paying the bill after his payment card was declined, loudly proclaiming who his father was.
His longest sentence was handed down in 2022, when aged 27, he pleaded guilty to 14 offences including carrying a knife and racial abuse, getting 18 months in prison.
After being released, Marco vowed never to touch drugs again after spending more than £1million on rehab.
He also revealed he had converted to Islam to help him ‘stay clean’ and reform after years of drug abuse which he has said began at the age of just 13.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline in 2023, he said: ‘I have been in rehab 17 times and being in prison has made me realise that enough is enough.
‘I have been in rehab all over America and in the UK and the only thing that has cured me is being banged up in a cell for 23 hours a day.
‘I have realised how lucky I am and have been. I have seen all walks of life in prison and some people don’t have a chance in life. I have had every opportunity and I have thrown them all away.
Marco’s struggles with crime began four days after his reality show exit when he appeared in a magistrate’s court to answer a drug driving charge
‘I could have done anything I wanted to, but instead I did heroin and ended up in prison. I have been an idiot.’
He added that he was being supported by his father and he had big plans to follow in his footsteps and become a chef.
The recovering drug addict also has the motivation of his young daughter Arabella Rose and he said bacj in the 2013 interview that missing a year of her life while in prison had also made him determined never to fall into drug use again.
But fast forward 18 months, and last week the troubled star was handed a suspended sentence for a spate of burglaries.
Marco, now living in Weston-super-Mare, avoided jail after being sentenced to a suspended 30-week prison sentence for a spate of burglaries in his hometown.
He only recently moved to Weston-super-Mare with his latest offence coming just over two months after he was handed eight weeks in jail for a spree of thefts in Chippenham and Bath.
