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Times
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Gabby Logan: ‘I was told I was too competitive for a woman'
Gabby Logan is posing in a pair of form-hugging PVC trousers and killer heels, with her shoulders adorned in fur. And as her last photo is taken she delivers a diva punchline to bring the house down: 'Well, that's my Match of the Day outfit sorted then.' If only. Logan takes the helm of the BBC's TV institution in August (along with Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman) following the recent departure of Gary Lineker. I dare you to wear that outfit, I say. 'The BBC don't say anything much about clothes, but they might say something about an outfit like that. So I don't think I'm going to rattle the cage,' she muses as we sit down to talk. MOTD is the longest-running football show in the world. To paraphrase Labour campaign watchers, she is about to walk across a highly polished floor holding a Ming vase. Is she nervous? 'Before any broadcast, I get just nervous enough to give a good performance. Before I had children I was quite superstitious. I'd wear the same coloured pants or walk the same route through the corridor to the studio for luck. But kids take you out of yourself. Now it's about being totally prepared so you feel adrenalised, excited.' Did Gary leave her a note, maybe some crisps? 'No. But our initials are the same so the door sign is the same.' When Logan was recruited by Sky TV back in the Nineties, her new bosses sent her out on the town with a fashion stylist. They drank champagne and then spent £5,000 on Prada, Armani and Kenzo clothes. Does MOTD do the same? 'Would it surprise you to hear the answer is no?' OK, one more, this time more serious: Lineker was the highest-paid BBC presenter, on £1.35 million a year. Has Logan demanded equal pay? 'That's all sorted,' she says. What does that mean? 'It's sorted.' A bumper summer of women's sport Her response is a swift reminder that we are not here to discuss MOTD but something possibly even bigger. Logan is about to front an unprecedented summer of women's sport coverage on the BBC. Women's football (the Euros begin in July), rugby (the World Cup is in August), not to mention cricket, tennis, athletics (the World Championships are in September) and netball. 'No sidelines, no second billing,' says the official Beeb announcement. There will be a grassroots campaign to get more girls and women participating too. 'Names will be made,' they predict. 'Think back to the women's Euros in 2022,' Logan enthuses. 'Lots of people didn't know who Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone or Ellen White were and it was such a joy to see them emerge as household names. Heroes, basically. And there are so many more to come.' Who might be the new stars? Look out for Aggie Beever-Jones (the England international and Chelsea star who recently scored a hat-trick against Portugal in the women's Nations League) and Ellie Kildunne (the England rugby union star and 2024 World Rugby's women's player of the year). 'A lot of these women are already very well known within sporting circles, but they really deserve wider recognition. And that means both women and men watching. With football particularly, I think sometimes the narrative can be: 'No men's Euros or World Cup this summer — it's going to be a quiet one.' It's really not. Across all these sports, there is amazing female talent waiting to be discovered.' Logan is of course a former international athlete herself — she was a gymnast for Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games but retired due to injury aged 17. Her father is the former Leeds United and Wales international footballer Terry Yorath and, as a young girl, she loved that game too. Could she have made it as a player with the right encouragement? It's easy to forget the FA actually banned women from using its facilities between 1921 and 1971. 'I was thinking about this recently,' she muses. 'Could I have made it? I would love to have played alongside England's all-time greatest, Kelly Smith. [The former England international was so determined to play football as a girl, she joined a boys' club in Watford aged seven. She became the top scorer, but was then kicked out after the parents of opposing teams complained.] But the determination you needed to succeed without facilities or media interest was incredible.' I spoke to Logan two years ago when she commentated on the women's World Cup final in Australia. At the time Neymar, the Brazilian star of the men's game, had just signed a deal worth £129 million a year playing for the Saudi Arabian team Al-Hilal; Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, earns more than £170 million a year at another Saudi Arabian club. Logan remarked that the men's game seemed 'a bit broken'. Can the women's game avoid that? 'This is the balancing act the women's game has got. They want the same brand deals as the men's game to bring more money in and grow the sport but without losing the connectivity with fans. I don't think anyone would disagree that the men's game has lost a little bit of that. You always see the women go to talk to the fans after a match. There are some amazing men too but it feels as though the stakes are so much higher — there's the whole 'talking behind the hand' thing because of lip-reading which is everywhere now. It feels harder to connect. But I would add: the fans in the men's game still care passionately. I have spoken to Sunderland, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest fans recently: the passion is still incredible.' Is any player worth £170 million a year? 'You're worth what someone decides to pay you. There's a lot of debate about players taking the money to play in Saudi Arabia but you can't walk in their shoes. You don't know if they're giving that money to the town they came from or building schools. So many players do that but it doesn't get the coverage because it's not exciting. And in terms of entertainment, would you apply that to the music industry and say Elton John isn't worth that money? Or that movie star isn't worth it for a film?' 'I want as many people to participate in sport in a safe and fair way' OK, women's sport can feel refreshingly wholesome — except perhaps in one area. It's been two months since the Supreme Court ruled that under equalities law, a woman is defined by biological sex, not gender identity. What is Logan's view on the ruling and what effect will it have on women's sport this summer? 'I'm not going to talk about that,' she says firmly. I am surprised. Logan has previously supported the former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies's stand on trans women in women's sport. 'I think we need to protect women's sport. That's why I think it's good what Sharron Davies is doing at the moment, in terms of talking about it,' she told a newspaper in 2019. 'We're dealing with science here. This is not about attacking a community; it's about saying: how can we make this a fair place for women to compete?' Is it fair to quote that as your rough position? 'I think that pertains to a conversation as much as anything,' Logan says. 'People having a forum to debate and have a conversation about something. I want as many people to participate in sport in a safe and fair way, whatever that looks like.' It feels like the Supreme Court ruling should make this issue easier to discuss. Why is it still so political and polarising? 'You tell me. Maybe there's a vacuum somewhere that's allowed it to become so polarising, which is disappointing.' We are sitting in a quiet corner of a photo studio. These exchanges feel like a half-hearted game of ping-pong in a very rundown youth centre. I get it. Logan is here representing the BBC and broadcasters are incredibly nervous about the gender debate. Days after we speak, the tennis legend and TV pundit Martina Navratilova is censored on ITV's X channel after posting comments about the controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. But it's a shame because on social media and in her 2022 memoir, The First Half, Logan is often both funny and bolshy. On X she has variously questioned Brexit, trolled Melania Trump's fashion choices, denounced Donald Trump and come out in support of Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals during the Covid pandemic. 'I found the people opposing Marcus Rashford totally baffling,' she says, rallying. 'This is a kid who knows what it's like [Rashford was brought up by a single mother] trying to use his position in a positive way. I grew up when football players were constantly being bashed for their lavish lifestyles, so the 'stick to football' attitude was very disappointing.' 'After my brother died, I promised him to live my life for two people' The 'wild west' of social media is where you find no-nonsense Logan. In fact, swagger into Gabby's Bar with a bad attitude and you are probably leaving through the window. In her memoir she calls the BBC broadcasting legend Des Lynam 'the master', but is more than ready to put him straight now. Last year Lynam said he had 'no gripe' with female presenters but that, 'When you're a pundit and you're offering opinions about the game, you have to have played it at the level you are talking about — ie, the men's game.' 'It's really strange for Des Lynam to be coming at it from that angle when he's never played the game at that level, has he?' she says. Elsewhere the billionaire former Spurs chairman Lord Sugar expressed concern that, while women pundits often comment on the men's game, there were no men covering the women's 2022 Euros tournament. 'Given the viewing figures for the women's Euros and the excitement around the whole tournament, I think perhaps Sir Alan misjudged that one,' she says. That's Logan all over. She is diligent and head-girlish, but then she's had to be. Her early life was happy, exciting even. With her mum, Christine, and siblings — sister Louise and brothers Daniel and Jordan — she moved around while her dad played in Leeds, London, even Canada. But the day 15-year-old Daniel died suddenly while playing football in the back garden (he had an undiagnosed heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), things changed overnight. Daniel and his father were very close and, heartbroken, Terry Yorath's life spun out of control; he became depressed and drank to excess. The marriage eventually fell apart. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Logan pulled herself together. In the funeral parlour, seeing her brother for the last time, she made him a promise: 'I am going to do everything I can to make your life count.' 'Yes, to live my life for two people,' she says today. The tragedy and her sporting instincts drove her to achieve and yet Logan has learnt that competitive women ruffle feathers. The moment of truth, she says, came while appearing with her husband, the former Scotland rugby international Kenny Logan, on Strictly Come Dancing in 2007. While Kenny was lauded as the game bruiser twirling through the pasa doble in a kilt, she was seen as trying too hard. Kenny came 5th, Gabby Logan was eliminated early in 11th place. It really hurt her. In The First Half she says the day she left she cried, 'People really don't like me,' into her sofa. Why did it hurt so much? 'Because I was kicked out! And it was a harsh lesson, learning that sometimes not everyone likes you. You realise the parts of your personality that you thought were attributes as a sportswoman are not valued. I was told I was being too competitive, whereas I was thinking, 'I thought that was good. That's what I did in sport — and it worked — and that's what my husband is doing.' I actually reckon there was a societal shift between that show in 2007 and 2012. At the 2012 Olympics we started to appreciate tough, competitive women. We made heroes of them. But in 2007 I wasn't playing the game expected of a woman.' What would a woman 'playing the game' look like? 'Oh, it would have served me to say,' — she bats her eyelids and smiles — ' 'Oh gosh, whatever, that's fine! I'm just happy to be here!' rather than trying hard. But you have to decide if that's you, and that's something I'm not compromising on.' There was another significant fallout from Daniel's death: the disrupted relationship with her father led her into an unhealthy pattern when choosing men. 'For a few years I sought the company of not very appropriate, older men,' she writes in her book. Most notable was Gary Staines, a long-distance runner who took a shine to her at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand. She was 16. Staines was 26 and engaged. A year later his marriage ended and Logan moved into his London flat. Logan ended the relationship once she was at Durham University, where she read law. But by her early twenties, despite having cut her teeth on local radio and making a name for herself as a presenter at Sky Sports, Logan was feeling lost. With her husband and Prince Charles at a reception for the Prince's Trust, 2013 PA 'I didn't like myself very much,' she says. 'I was probably wanting to mend something because our family was quite broken, because of my brother dying. I felt I could create something like a family, a happy place. Those were the relationships I was pursuing. But a bit of guidance from a therapist helped me recognise those patterns were not healthy. That was a good time for it to happen, because in my early twenties I realised I wasn't enjoying relationships I was in. It didn't seem like a good way to be.' 'Thank God I am married to a normal bloke' Early in 1999 Logan was on her way home from dinner with a girlfriend who suggested a late drink in a bar. Logan didn't want to go; she was still queasy from an uncomfortable New Year's Eve dalliance: 'a cigar-smoking wide boy' she'd snogged and who wanted her to do cocaine in the lavatories at a London cabaret (she didn't). Nevertheless, she and the friend slipped into London's K Bar and she was introduced to Kenny Logan. Early portents weren't great. He was drunk and thought he was talking to the former Big Breakfast presenter Gaby Roslin. Nevertheless they hit it off. 'Thank God I am married to a normal bloke who isn't an addict,' she says in her book, and is very funny about Kenny bouncing her off the water bed in her London townhouse during their early years together. 'He's still my number one,' she says. In recent years her marriage to Kenny has become something of a minor sporting spectacle in itself. Logan has been disarmingly honest about how the menopause affected her sex drive ('Is this going to become a duty?') until she took HRT. And it was a 2021 edition of podcast The that prompted Kenny to get himself checked out for prostate cancer; he tested positive. He has made a full recovery but both have been refreshingly open about the impact of the disease on their relationship: Kenny talked us through his testicles growing to 'the size of tennis balls' and the month it took post-surgery to get any erectile 'movement'. 'We decided: we have a platform — let's use it for good,' Logan says. 'We get a lot of great feedback from people who say they took action [about their health]. I'm sure our kids have been teased about it more than we know, but they also feel grateful that their dad's life was, if not saved, at least spared from something more serious.' As a teenager herself she says she was too tall and flat-chested to be fancied by boys. She didn't drink and was dedicated to her sport. No wonder, as a 16-year-old at the Commonwealth Games, she was baffled as to why male competitors wanted to hang out with her and her sister Louise — who went on to become a model — or why the Sultan of Brunei's brother, Prince Jefri, sent her a Brunei team tracksuit as a gift along with his phone number. 'I just thought, 'Oh, nice tracksuit,' ' Logan recalls now. 'I only really read about him afterwards.' Prince Jefri reportedly owned more than 2,000 cars and enjoyed entertaining on a superyacht called Tits. Why did it take her so long to realise that, in her own words, many sports people at major tournaments are 'on heat'? 'I was very young, but when you step back it's obvious, isn't it? All these very fit, healthy people who train so hard — and, if my experience is anything to go by, miss out on so many social events because they are trying to get their gymnastics right — are suddenly ready to mingle. You're done training and there are lots of other fit, lovely people around who also want to let off a bit of steam. It's no great surprise that there are romantic liaisons. I believe the French handed out more condoms than ever at the Paris Olympics. It's the swimmers you have to watch out for — their events always finish first. And if you get up at 5am to train for your whole life and you are superfit and you finish your competition, you deserve to party, right? Just don't live next to the swimmers in the village if you want a good night's sleep.' Back then a young athlete could make mistakes — she is clear the relationship with Gary Staines 'should never have happened' — but we now live in a world of social media. As a leading broadcaster, the scrutiny and abuse are intense. Logan has been told to 'get back in the kitchen' on X; and in the last year alone she has been taken to task for wishing viewers a 'happy festive season' instead of saying 'Christmas' and for using the term 'cock-up' while commentating on last year's Olympics. 'You have to decide how much it's going to invade your sanity,' she says. 'The people that matter to me, I will always listen to their opinion. I am just glad I stopped my kids having phones till they were 16 so they could at least have a taste of what I had: the chance to be in the moment, even to make mistakes.' Dress, Shoes, Earrings, ROBERT WILSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE Lois is at university and Reuben a rugby player for Northampton Saints (he joins Sale Sharks next season). They are relaxed about their mum's achievements, although there was a flurry of texts when she got the MOTD job. 'It's an institution, so of course it was huge for them too,' she says, smiling. But first, this summer of women's sport will be the fruition of years of determined, unrecognised effort. There are parallels with Logan's TV career. Aged 11, she watched a VHS tape of the 1984 Olympics over and over again, noting even then that only men seemed to be presenters. In her twenties, at Sky TV, her boss told her that her career would be over when she was 28, and in her early thirties she very nearly gave up after being sidelined at ITV. She took a 66 per cent pay cut to join the BBC. She had just had children when ITV let her go. Wasn't she suspicious? 'No. That's TV. I had a real crisis of confidence. I wondered, 'Am I any good at this job?' But the truth is, sometimes people just aren't into you.' No wonder her X profile simply says, 'Still here.' 'I owe my opportunities to some quite strident women in TV before me who said, 'It's not right that we get chucked off air just because we hit 40,' ' she asserts. 'Women like Kirsty Wark, presenting Newsnight into her sixties. Like the sportswomen we will hopefully celebrate this summer, I feel I am very much standing on the shoulders of giants.'
Daily Mirror
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sky Sports eye Roman Kemp in TV shake-up after Match of the Day snub
Roman Kemp has emerged as a surprise target for Sky Sports as they continue on a major restructure which has seen seven presenters leave the broadcaster this summer Sky Sports are in talks with Roman Kemp over a role presenting their football coverage. The 32-year-old is the son of former Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp and rose to fame as the host of Capital Radio's Breakfast show. He left that role in March 2024 after seven years, instead focusing on his presenting job on the One Show. Kemp is also famously a huge fan of Arsenal, regularly attending matches at the Emirates Stadium. He emerged as a surprise name to take over as Match of the Day host following Gary Lineker's exit. Lineker announced last November that his time as MOTD host would come to an end this summer. The former Barcelona star has now left the BBC a year early, after his contract was terminated. Bosses at the corporation are thought to be keen to give the iconic show broader appeal to younger audiences. That led to Kemp's name being linked with a role on the programme, though ultimately Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan were selected to timeshare the job of being Lineker's replacement. Following that snub, the Daily Mail report rivals Sky Sports have opened talks with Kemp over a potential job. The final nature of the role is yet to be decided, though one option is for Kemp to front a show which would be simulcast on Sky Sports News, along with Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League channels. It comes as Sky continue to embark on a major restructure. Seven reporters and presenters have been made redundant, including presenters Rob Wotton, Teddy Draper and Jasper Taylor. Back in November, The Sun reported that Kemp was being lined up for a 'digital role' within the Match of the Day stable. The BBC struck a new highlights deal with the Premier League which enables them to show match action before their traditional 10.30pm time-slot on Saturday nights. The corporation are expected to 'put a renewed focus' on their digital output in light of said agreement. Kemp has been used by Football Focus to conduct some interviews, such as with Arsenal star Mikel Merino back in December. When he announced Chapman, Cates and Logan as Lineker's replacement, BBC Sport director Alex Kay-Jelski insisted he was very hopeful for the future. He said: "I know viewers will love these three incredible broadcasters and journalists at the heart of our football coverage next season. "They're brilliant at what they do and MOTD viewers can be sure they will be well looked after as the big football talking points are expertly analysed. "Gary has done a phenomenal job at Match of the Day for the last 25 years, he'll be missed greatly and we all still get to enjoy him on our screens across some of football's greatest tournaments. "Outside of Match of the Day we've got some great new shows, voices and surprises lined up for the 2025-26 season across audio, video and digital and we look forward to sharing them with you all later in the year. It's a truly exciting time for BBC Sport's football coverage."
Daily Mirror
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Gary Lineker reunites with his first wife Michelle at son Harry's Ibiza wedding
Former Match of the Day host, Gary Lineker, was seen beaming with pride alongside his first wife, Michelle Cockayne, when the proud parents attended their son Harry's wedding in Ibiza Gary Lineker and his first wife, Michelle Cockayne, put the past behind them when they reunited for their son's wedding in Ibiza recently. Harry Lineker was surrounded by his famous family when he tied the knot on the Spanish island at the lavish nuptials, which were also attended by Gary's brother, Wayne, earlier this month. In snaps taken from the celebration, Gary, 64, dressed in a beige linen suit with cropped trousers and brown suede loafers, sits next to Michelle as they wait for Harry's bride, Annabelle, to walk down the aisle. Michelle looked stunning for her son's big day, sporting a midnight blue, silk maxi dress, which was perfect for the sun-kissed nuptials. She is also seen in another family photo on the party island alongside Gary and the former couple's four sons, Tobias, 29, George, 34, Angus, 26, and groom, Harry, 31. Gary married Michelle in 1986 when the former footballer met his wife-to-be when she was 14 and he was an 18-year- old reserve for his home town club Leicester City. "There wasn't one particular moment when we suddenly became a couple but I do remember asking her out for our first proper date to a restaurant when she was 17 and it just went on from there," Gary once recalled, adding: "I was probably keener on her then than she was on me and I'm probably keener now." The couple went on to welcome four sons, but, tragically, were made to endure every parent's worst nightmare when they discovered their son, George, had been diagnosed with cancer when he was just a baby. Gary discussed the heartbreaking time - during which their son spent seven months in hospital - during an interview on ITV 's The Assembly in which celebrities are interviewed by a panel of neurodivergent or learning disabled individuals. With tears in his eyes, the former footballer, who recently left MOTD after a 25-year-tenure, explained that George wasn't given much of a chance following his leukaemia diagnosis when he was just two months old. Visibly moved when asked about his son, Gary said: "That was really tough - it changes you, he was only two months old. We got told he had leukaemia, he wasn't given much chance. "It was really awful. We were in the hospital for around seven months with him.' Gary continued: 'We were the lucky ones, because there were other parents in there that lost their kids so we felt quite fortunate in the end. It was really scary." Claiming that he and Michelle handled the terrifying time differently, he concluded: "I felt I needed to talk about it. Michelle, she would bottle things up. But ultimately we got a good ending.' Two decades after they tied the knot, when George was 16, Michelle filed for divorce from Gary on the grounds of her his 'unreasonable behaviour', with documents submitted to the court claiming that the England star's actions in their marriage had caused her 'stress and anxiety'. However, they later stated their marriage breakdown was amicable, with Gary, who went on to marry Welsh model, Dannielle Bux, recently telling The Times he'd had "two really good marriages".
Scottish Sun
03-06-2025
- Health
- Scottish Sun
What happened to Gabby Logan's brother Daniel Yorath?
See what Gabby said in her moving tribute to her little brother GABBY Logan hails from a well-known Yorkshire family with an array of amazing achievements between them. But, seemingly out of nowhere, tragedy struck her younger brother Daniel Yorath when the MOTD presenter was just 19 years old. Advertisement 3 Christine Yorath pictured at home with daughters Gabby, 4, and Louise, 3, and son Daniel, 1, in March 1978 Credit: Getty The Yorath Family Members of the Yorath family have a number of accomplishments in a variety of fields, with Gabby Logan just one of their many success stories. The patriarch Terry Yorath is a former Welsh international footballer and manager. He played as a midfielder for clubs including Leeds United, Coventry and Spurs, and also earned 59 caps for Wales. After his playing career, Terry managed teams including Swansea and the Welsh national team. Advertisement He was also assistant manager at Bradford City during the 1985 stadium fire and was injured while helping evacuate the ground of supporters. Christine Yorath, the matriarch of the family, is a successful property developer and interior designer based in Leeds. Sudden and unexpected Gabby Logan's younger brother Daniel Yorath tragically died at the age of 15 in 1992. His death was sudden and completely unexpected, with Gabby paying tribute on the 33rd anniversary of his passing in May 2025. Advertisement Daniel Yorath was having a kick-about in the garden of his Leeds home with his dad Terry — a routine activity for the sporty family — when he suddenly collapsed and died. Having recently signed for Leeds, Daniel was believed to be exceptionally fit and healthy — there were no prior warning signs and he hadn't previously shown any symptoms of illness or heart problems. Gabby Logan says Christian Eriksen's collapse 'stirred up memories' of brother Daniel's fatal cardiac arrest at just 15 Cause of death A post-mortem examination revealed that Daniel died from undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a congenital heart condition. HCM is a genetic condition, the severity of which can vary greatly, that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood and greatly increasing the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, especially in young athletes. Advertisement The disease can be asymptomatic and is often only discovered after a sudden death. In 2022, Gabby told BBC Wales Live: "He was playing football in the garden with my dad and he fell over. "My dad thought he just was messing about and went over and rolled him over, and he basically died on the spot — and had no previous indications whatsoever that there were any health problems at all with him. 3 Gabby's dad Terry was assistant manager at Bradford City when the stadium caught fire in 1985 Advertisement 'Like a sledgehammer' "It's like a sledgehammer coming down and sending everybody off in different directions, because it's such a catastrophic thing to happen, and no warning — and everybody responds differently." In April 2025, Gabby, who was just 19 when her younger brother died, opened up about the effect it had on her on the ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast. She said: 'I was running around running from my grief probably and then by the end of my first year at university, so just around the time of his first anniversary I had some first year exams and it all kind of came crashing down. 'I'd stopped sleeping properly. I felt very wobbly, I just kind of lost my balance and I went to see a doctor and he gave me some sleeping tablets and I thought 'That's not what I need'. Advertisement 3 Gabby paid a moving tribute to her brother on the 33rd anniversary of his passing Credit: Alamy 'Even I knew that's not the answer to what was going on, it was much deeper than that, it was the plaster and my dad had had a lot of problems with sleeping tablets. He said 'Don't take those, that's not a good route'.' And on the 33rd anniversary of his untimely passing, Gabby posted a tribute on Instagram: "It's 33 years. So much has happened, so many huge landmarks passed. 'I will always acknowledge Daniel's wonderful life. But there is a hole that is never filled, a gap that always needs navigating and that has been the challenge for all of us. Advertisement 'A beautiful, painful and brilliant challenge. And that is life. Daniel Aiden Yorath 25.7.76 - 25.5.92." Daniel's death inspired Gabby to champion campaigns for heart screening among young athletes, aiming to prevent similar tragedies in other families. She has actively raised awareness about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and the importance of early detection, supporting charities and appeals in Daniel's name. Gabby has presented appeals for charities focused on heart health, including Tiny Tickers, which works to improve early detection of heart defects in children.
Wales Online
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Gary Lineker reunited with brother Wayne in wild scenes after 17-year feud
Gary Lineker reunited with brother Wayne in wild scenes after 17-year feud Despite the relationship between Gary Lineker and his brother Wayne having been strained through the years, the pair reunited after the former footballer's departure from the BBC Gary Lineker and Wayne Lineker were surprisingly spotted letting their hair down at a family gathering, despite past disagreements between the two brothers. The Lineker siblings appeared to be in high spirits as they enjoyed the fairly wild festivities at the family event. George Lineker, Gary's son, shared several videos on his Instagram story, showing guests, including Gary and Wayne, having drinks poured directly into their mouths from the bottle. Gary, dressed in a crisp white shirt, was captured throwing his head back as a spirit was poured into his mouth. The same happened to Wayne shortly after, before the camera returned to Gary, who gave his brother a nod and a warm smile as he waved a napkin above his head. Despite their differences – with Gary being a former England footballer before becoming a respected figure at the BBC as a presenter, while Wayne is the owner of the Ibiza beach club and Linekers Bar – the brothers seemed to enjoy each other's company as they finally reunited, reports the Daily Star. The meeting came after Gary's final Match of the Day show last Sunday following 25 years as host, as he said an emotional goodbye. He was honoured with a special cap and a Golden Boot from pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, while Gary even received a touching video message from Andrea Bocelli, who sang for his beloved Leicester City's historic title victory in 2016. Even Wayne paid tribute on Instagram, posting a goat emoji – widely recognised as an acronym for 'greatest of all time' – in reply to a BBC video of his brother's last MOTD show. Article continues below Gary Lineker was in party mood The 17-year rift between the two brothers has been a much-talked about point of discussion with Wayne attributing their falling out beginning in 2008 as he pointed fingers at Gary's ex-wife Danielle Bux. The discord was further fuelled by allegations of Wayne's hedonistic lifestyle causing a strain. "In my opinion, Danielle cost me my relationship with my brother. Sadly, Gary is no longer a part of my life," Wayne told The Sun back in April 2015. "They came to Ibiza in August 2008 and it was really awkward. I didn't spark with Danielle and our relationship was cold," he recounted. Despite playing a pivotal role as best man at Gary's first nuptials to Michelle Cockayne in 1986, Wayne was conspicuously absent from Gary's second wedding to Danielle, due to his then-partner, model Ana Tanaka, not being on the guest list, despite their year-and-a-half-long relationship. Article continues below Wayne and Gary Lineker barely spoke for 17 years before reuniting (Image: Instagram ) In a turn of events, Wayne announced in 2017 that communication had resumed between the siblings, and he maintained a strong bond with Gary's sons George, Harry, Angus, and Tobias. It seems the family ties have now been fully restored after 17 years of discontent with the siblings – who are separated by just a year ≠ now possessing the alcohol-fuelled photographs to show for it.
