Catherine Zeta-Jones has been asked to appear in Welcome to Wrexham “many times” by Ryan Reynolds, and has said no every time. The reason is Swansea City.
“It’s really hard to explain to Americans that I am from Swansea and I was brought up with Swansea City,” she told Heart Breakfast’s Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden on Wednesday morning.
“My uncle Bobby was director of the Swans when John Toshack took us to the Premiership. I was in the front seat of the parade. I have been a lifelong Swansea City fan.”
Toshack’s Swansea reached the old First Division, the top flight before the Premier League existed, in 1981, when Zeta-Jones was 11. Uncle Bobby is Robert Jones, the club’s chairman in that era, who went on to open the Panda Motors dealership in the city in 1986.
“They’d throw bricks at me in the street”
Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Wrexham have become a global TV story since the Hollywood pair bought the club in 2021, with Welcome to Wrexham now in its fourth series and a habit of pulling in famous Welsh faces.
Asked by Holden whether it was true she had “absolutely, categorically” said no, Zeta-Jones replied: “I wasn’t asked once. I was asked many times.”
“I can’t go to Wrexham,” she said. “I can’t even go to Wrexham to tell them how much I love Swansea. I think they’d throw bricks at me in the street.”
Theakston pointed out that Cardiff, not Wrexham, is the real rival. “I’m saying nothing about Cardiff,” she said. “That’s just a 25-minute bus ride. I’ve got to keep everyone happy. Swansea City is my team.”
The Swans, the Freedom of the City and Kill Jackie
Zeta-Jones learned her trade with Swansea Amateur Operatic Society before leaving for the West End as a teenager, and was given the Freedom of the City in 2019.
She was on the show to talk about Kill Jackie, the eight-part Prime Video thriller in which she plays a retired drug smuggler turned art dealer, the first leading screen role in which she uses her own Welsh accent. It was partly filmed in Swansea and launches on 2 October.
Earlier this month she told The Sunday Times the “nepo baby” label being attached to her children Dylan and Carys was “horrific”.
The Swans, for their part, are top of the Championship.
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