'I was a poster boy for gay surrogacy, now I own a football club'

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow is used to exploring the unknown.

He and his ex-husband Tony made headlines in 1999 when they became one of the first gay couples in the UK to have children through a surrogate mother.

More recently, the entrepreneur let a stranger live in his house for a reality show and has appeared on other shows such as Rich House, Poor House and Below Deck Sailing Yacht.

What he never dreamed of doing was becoming the owner of a football club.

"I was the one who would sit on my laptop doing work when it ever came on the TV, or I'd go out," he says.

But now the 55-year-old cannot get enough of the beautiful game.

It has been a year since he completed a multi-million pound deal to purchase Essex-based Maldon and Tiptree Football Club.

By his own admission, Drewitt-Barlow still has some swotting up to do.

"The offside rule still doesn't make any sense to me," he concedes.

"Every now and then when I see the whistle going from the ref or the linespeople, I just don't get it. I'm like, 'What's happened? Why has he stopped playing?'

"I almost thought they were doing a Morris dancing kind of thing with their flags at one point. It's not what I expected."

Drewitt-Barlow grew up on a council estate in Manchester before moving to Essex and making a fortune in property.

Acquiring Maldon and Tiptree FC in February 2025 marked his latest business venture.

Drewitt-Barlow quickly oversaw the signing of some big names, including ex-West Ham United striker Freddie Sears and and the Zimbabwe international and former Colchester United, Leyton Orient and Southend United attacker Macauley Bonne.

Kevin Horlock, who once played for Manchester City, West Ham and Ipswich Town, was brought in as manager.

The arrivals made waves in the local football scene, as the Isthmian League North side, founded in 1946, are in the eighth tier of English football.

It was all the same to Drewitt-Barlow though.

He says: "As a novice, you look at football and you see these crazy salaries from these big Premier League people - £300,000 a week – and it's not like that in this league.

"A lot of people still work regular jobs, this is a part-time thing for them.

"I didn't realise that kind of thing happened. I thought if you were a footballer, you're a footballer - you weren't a black cab driver or a roofer as well.

"But people have real lives and real jobs, that was the hardest thing for me to work out."

Another reality check for Drewitt-Barlow, who lives in Danbury, Essex, was the FA Cup.

A series of impressive wins surged the Jammers into the first round proper of the prestigious English tournament.

There they faced Port Vale: a League One side who were 99 places above them in the footballing pyramid.

What happened during the lead-up to the match quickly changed Drewitt-Barlow's entire outlook on the game.

"I'd heard about the FA Cup but I didn't understand the importance of it," he explains.

"I agreed with the FA to let the cup come here for an evening and I tell you now, the queues were round the block, down the street, for people to come in and see a piece of tin.

"It's like what the hell, people are actually that interested in this cup? Well, oh my God, they were.

"They were literally queuing, grown guys with their kids, waiting outside to come in and have a photograph taken with the FA Cup.

"Honestly, we felt the magic that night," he adds.

It was not just the excitement that Drewitt-Barlow, now club chief executive, was surprised by - it was the cash too.

The Jammers' match was chosen for TV coverage, earning them what he said was about £100,000.

The club also took half of the money earned on the gate, of which there were 4,551 fans in attendance, and won £15,800 in prize money for making it to the first round.

"I felt like all our Christmases came together with that FA Cup run," Drewitt-Barlow adds.

Even before the match, which Maldon and Tiptree went on to lose 5-1, people were already talking about the businessman - who had been filmed during the cup draw.

"When it was announced on the TV I was like, 'Where the hell is Port Vale?'," he recalls.

"That clip went everywhere."

Drewitt-Barlow has embraced becoming the pantomime villain on the terraces, but being targeted for his sexuality is where he draws the line.

"It's difficult on the terraces still," he says. "That's where the bite comes from."

"There's still a massive stigma about being gay in football, but as time goes on those boundaries should break down.

"I don't mind being the whipping boy. They can call me all the names under the sun, I really couldn't give a flying hoot."

Drewitt-Barlow claims to have been approached by footballers - three of which he says are currently playing in the Premier League - who are hiding being gay.

He is happy to help, but insists he does not want to become "the poster boy for gay footballing".

"I've already been classed as the poster boy for gay parenting or surrogacy and it doesn't get anybody anywhere," he adds.

"I don't think people want to [come out] because they're scared about what might happen in the dressing room, as well as on the pitch.

"I think the only people that can truly help and make it more normalised are the leagues and the FA."

Away from the terraces, Drewitt-Barlow has been kept busy with renovations.

From the clubhouse to the changing rooms, he has led an expensive overhaul of the facilities, which he described as "semi-derelict" when he arrived.

Even purchasing grass for each goalmouth set him back £40,000.

It is very much a family operation, with husband Scott and son Aspen also overseeing the project.

Drewitt-Barlow says: "It was unloved, the place was tired. It needed somebody to come in, give it some love and show it some attention - and that's exactly what we did."

Under his stewardship, he claims Maldon and Tiptree have gone from attracting 70 spectators to an average crowd of 800.

"There's a lot of players who want to come here now, big players," he boasts.

"I can't walk around Tesco now without somebody telling me who we should be employing as a footballer."

The chief executive wants to take his club, which is in second place, into the English Football League and is chasing back-to-back promotions.

He reveals half the squad are being paid full-time, while the other half remain part-time.

Drewitt-Barlow believes his club is now sustainable and will end the year in profit, boosted by the launch of a BTEC sports course in September.

But does he feel tired after his first year in football?

"Honestly, it's given me a fresh lease of life, I feel regenerated. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner," Drewitt-Barlow says.

"People love football, I never got it before now. I just did not get what people saw in football.

"Now I get it, I totally get it."

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