Gabby Logan: The Lionesses will bring it home (2025)

When the England women’s football team won the European Championship last summer, the BBC presenter Gabby Logan delivered a highly evocative line to the millions watching: “They think it’s all over, but it’s only just begun . . . ”

“I was quite pleased with that,” she says from her Sydney hotel room. “And I’ve been making a few notes just in case I have the chance to say something special on Sunday.”

You can sense her excitement. Logan, 50, will be presenting the Women’s World Cup final tomorrow, an occasion that would have been unthinkable when she was a child. “The atmosphere is extraordinary. Apparently the semi-final [against the co-hosts Australia] was the most-watched TV programme here in history. Women’s football has entered a new world. I simply could not have imagined this when I was growing up.”

Logan was no mean athlete herself — she represented Wales at rhythmic gymnastics at the 1990 Commonwealth Games — and would have loved to have played football too. Her dad, Terry Yorath, played for Leeds United and captained Wales, but the women’s game didn’t exist in the way it does today. When she was 14 her PE teacher organised a five-a-side team but couldn’t find any opposition.

Instead, Logan embarked on a presenting career, doing stints of reporting from Newcastle United for local radio while still at Durham University. When she first appeared on the touchline some fans would shout “Get your tits out!” at her. On one occasion, she recounted in her memoir The First Half, her mother was with her and asked: “Why are they asking to see your teeth?”

“There was a definite proprietorial sense of ‘Oi, what’s a bloody girl doing in a man’s world?’” she says. On another occasion she was interviewing the former England manager Bobby Robson, who heard the chanting and opened his shirt to flash his breasts in support. “Thankfully those days seem to have gone,” Logan adds. “In fact what I’m seeing now is some men are being inspired by the women’s game simply because men’s football, at the top end at any rate, seems a bit broken.”

We are speaking two days after the Brazilian star Neymar signed a £130 million-a-year deal to play in Saudi Arabia, where Cristiano Ronaldo is earning £173 million a year. In stark contrast, the average salary in the Women’s Super League in England is £47,000 a year.

“That’s why the Lionesses have connected big time,” she says. “They’ve touched people because they are down to earth, the kind of women you’d want to hang out with. They’re approachable and likeable as well as being heroes. It’s dangerous to build sports stars up as moral icons but they are good people that I’d be happy for my kids to look up to. We all know that is sometimes missing from the men’s game.”

Gary Lineker is often cited as the most opinionated TV anchor of the men’s game but Logan is never shy of saying what she thinks either. In The First Half she acknowledges that part of the reason she got her break in TV was that she looked good in short skirts and ankle boots. Now she uses her podcast The Mid Point to discuss all things midlife, including the menopause.

Four years ago, when she started forgetting players’ names, she decided to take HRT. “There’s a choice for women my age: do a bit of research and address the problems or suffer unnecessarily,” she says. “It could’ve been a very depressing prospect if I hadn’t taken HRT — irritable, foggy, low libido. I feel far better now than I did in my forties because of it.”

● Gabby Logan on husband Kenny Logan’s cancer

Logan was just as up front in discussing the diagnosis of prostate cancer given last year to her husband, the former Scotland rugby union international Kenny Logan. He has just had his fourth blood test giving him the all-clear. “Right now he’s training hard for a charity cycle ride from Edinburgh to Paris, where he’ll deliver the match ball for the Scotland v Ireland World Cup game on October 7,” she says with some pride. Kenny will be raising money for the motor neurone disease charity, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

It was listening to his wife’s podcast that inspired Kenny to get himself tested. He was stunned when, despite showing no symptoms, the doctor told him he had it. Husband and wife have since openly discussed the aftermath, including their struggles getting their sex life back on track after Logan’s prostate was removed. He quoted his wife in the bedroom saying, “Oh, it’s not working, that’s it, it’s not working, it’s not working,” and his confidence hitting rock bottom.

What has been the public reaction to such honesty? “A lot of women have given that podcast to their partners to listen to and lots have had a check-up and caught prostate cancer as a result,” she says. “And I actually think being honest about the aftermath helped Kenny’s recovery be quicker. After all, he was always up for discussing how the menopause affected not just me but the family and our relationship, so it stands to reason I would have something to say about prostate cancer from a woman’s point of view.”

Logan has become something of a poster girl for midlife health. She turned 50 in April and was recently photographed for the magazine Women’s Health (the full interview can be read in the September issue) looking incredibly toned in high heels and Lycra.

“I’m getting a lot of feedback from that photoshoot, so I’m sort of glad I’m here in Australia,” she says, laughing. “But I stand by the fact that women can be at their best at 50. I love feeling fit — if Kenny is snoozing on the sofa pretending to watch a football match I’ll go and do a workout. When we are on holiday and the kids [her twins, Lois and Reuben, are 18] want to go surfing I want to be taking part. I don’t want to win at everything like I did in my twenties, but I want to be functional. I want to be doing the splits at 60 if possible.”

Even with her punishing World Cup schedule, Logan has stuck to her fitness regimen. It’s Pilates most days, but on the morning we speak she woke up and decided to do a Barry’s Bootcamp session (a high-intensity workout). “There I was with a bunch of 20-year-olds, but at my age you stop being embarrassed. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?”

● Gabby Logan criticises TV awards for overlooking sports presenters

She also bought herself a week’s pass to a Sydney spa with ice baths, a hyperbaric chamber and infra-red saunas. “A friend in the UK is suffering from long Covid and he’s had good results from a hyperbaric chamber [in which you breathe 100 per cent oxygen], so I decided to give it a go the day I flew into Sydney from London. You know what? I slept for eight hours and had zero jet lag. I’ll be looking for one when I get home.”

For her 50th birthday Logan had a party and the family bought her a poodle, which she named Maverick. She also spent an idyllic weekend in Cornwall with her girlfriends. “Some are in their forties, most are in their fifties, and I think we are all pretty grateful to be women now. Attitudes, health, opportunities — they’ve all improved. We are very much standing on the shoulders of giants of a previous generation. And I personally always remember that simply being alive at 50 is a privilege. Not everyone gets to be 50. I never forget that.”

When she was 19 Logan’s brother Daniel died suddenly, aged 15 — he had an undiagnosed heart problem and collapsed playing football in the garden. The fallout was catastrophic. Her parents divorced and her father struggled with alcohol and depression. Last year she spoke about his reclusive existence and the fact he plays little role in family life. It’s good to hear that she recently got a text from him — he has been getting up to watch her present the World Cup games. “It’s nice to know he’s watching,” she says. “And I can’t tell you what that says about the journey women’s football is on. The very idea my dad would get out of bed to cheer on women is something else.”

Logan has to go. She has a World Cup final to prepare for. And yet some other big results are just coming in. Our chat was delayed by a few minutes because back in the UK it’s her children’s A-level results day. “I think we’re OK,” she says. “God knows what I would have done from here if they hadn’t been. I’m looking forward to getting back and hugging them. And I’ve a feeling our women are going to be bringing it home on Sunday too.”
Read the full Women’s Health interview here

Gabby Logan’s perfect weekend

Gary Lineker or Alex Scott?
Both

Alessia Russo or Harry Kane?
Russo

Gym or country walk?
I love a country walk

Aperol spritz or Foster’s
I’m new to Aperol spritz. It looks like cough medicine but I’m definitely converted

I couldn’t get through my weekend without . . .
Cooking an Ottolenghi feast for my family. And a G&T for me