Alex Scott said she has been left in fear of her life by trolling and racist abuse, which has taken the pundit and former footballer to some “dark places”.
The 37-year-old, who played for Arsenal and England and had a key role on the BBC commentary team during the Lionesses’ winning run in the Women’s Euros, said she received death threats last summer after it was incorrectly reported that she was to replace Sue Barker as the presenter of A Question of Sport.
“That was at a level that I was scared for my life”, she told the Times. “I was scared to leave my house to even go to the shop. That’s the stage that we’d got to – that, oh my gosh, someone black might be replacing a national treasure could cause such hatred.”
Scott said she turned to alcohol for a short while in an attempt to block out the trolls and also sought therapy.
“I take lessons from what’s happened to me. I wouldn’t be the person I am without all this,” she said.
Then, later in the summer of 2021, she found herself under attack over her Tokyo Olympics coverage when retired crossbench peer Lord Digby Jones criticised her pronunciation and suggested she take elocution lessons.
Scott responded – tweeting: “I’m from a working-class family in east London, Poplar, Tower Hamlets and I am PROUD” – and a backlash against Jones followed, but the experience took its toll.
“I can slip into dark places. And once I slip into dark places, I don’t stop,” she said. “I loved being out at the Olympics, but afterwards I realised the mad pressure that I’d put on myself to take everything – the trolling, the racism, Lord Digby Jones.”
“I went into the Olympics knowing the scrutiny that I would be under once again from all the trolls,” she added. “But then to open Twitter and see that from him, I was just like: ‘I’m not going to be silent any more. I’ve had enough.’ So I just tweeted and went to bed.”
In November she will present the BBC’s men’s World Cup coverage from Doha and later in the year is hosting Sports Personality of the Year.
