From heartbreaking miscarriages and suicide to prison woes, the cast of TOWIE has experienced it all. While most of its reality TV stars have gone on to achieve massive success - like Sam and Billie Faiers with The Mummy Diaries and Mark Wright with his US fame - others sadly have had a rough ride. The year 2022 especially saw several shocking fates for Lauren Goodger and Yazmin Oukhellou.
Here, the Mirror takes a look back at some of the most devastating tragedies since The Only Way is Essex first aired - from the sad death of Mick Norcross to Arg's terrifying drug overdose...
Sad death of Mick Norcross The showbiz world was rocked when the death of Sugar Hut boss Mick Norcross was announced after the Essex businessman took his own life at the age of 57. Mick, father of TOWIE original Kirk Norcross, was found dead at his home on January 21, 2021, after struggling to cope during lockdown amid financial difficulties. In a statement read by the coroner at an inquest in July the same year, his son Kirk recalled how his father had begun sleeping longer and didn't seem himself.
"It was almost like he had a black cloud over his head," he said. "He would make passing comments, 'This money is not worth this agg, I'm better offing myself'. I never took this seriously – I thought he was just joking.
" Ferne McCann's pregnancy ordeal In 2016, Ferne McCann quit the ITVBe show and went on to announce the happy news that she and her then-boyfriend Arthur Collins were expecting their first.