Footballer and former jungle queen Jill Scott opens up on the barriers she's overcome to get to where she is, her footballing friendships and getting married08:06, 02 Jun 2026Former Manchester City midfielder Jill Scott faced many hurdles while pursuing her dream of becoming a footballer. The 39 year old, who was made an MBE in 2020 for her services to women’s football, was even picked on as a child for her love of the beautiful game. But now, with over 400 professional matches under her belt, for both club and country, Jill has proved all her doubters wrong.‌“There were a lot of barriers along the way,” she says. “I got bullied for it because I was the only girl playing football. I wanted to be a female footballer and that probably didn’t exist at that time as a career.‌“Without that PE teacher, without that coach who said, ‘You know what, Jill, do whatever you want to do, if you’re willing to work hard,’ I might never have stood at Wembley in front of 90,000 people with a Gold medal for England [in the 2022 UEFA Women’s Championship]. My journey, I feel so lucky I’m the one who’s got to live it, but it wouldn’t have happened without all the support around it. I’d love kids to feel that support to go on and do whatever they want.”‌Jill is on a mission to help others and is doing so with a five-day 400-mile cycle and marathon from Wembley Stadium to her home city of Sunderland, in aid of Sport Relief, which starts on 8 June. She’ll stop at some of the football clubs that have influenced her career and will be joined by some of her friends and family.“I’m a bit nervous,” she admits. “It’s a hell of a distance to do in five days. But I’m also excited. I think people will think, ‘She was an athlete, so she’ll have a certain level of fitness,’ but in all honesty, since retiring four years ago, I’ve struggled to get myself into a routine with training. And even when I did train for football, I never covered distances like a marathon.”‌It’s sure to be an emotional journey too, and Jill says, “I’m not really a crier, but this could definitely break me.”Since retiring from professional football in 2022, Jill has forged a career in TV and broadcasting. She was crowned jungle queen on I’m A Celebrity that same year and now features on two podcasts - Long Story Short with teammate Karen Carney and Stick to Football with Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher. She is also a team captain on sports comedy show A League Of Their Own . But Jill admits retiring was still a daunting prospect.‌“I’m not someone who plans too far ahead,” she says. “I think that’s because going back to being younger, the thing I wanted more than anything, there wasn’t a pathway to it, so I protected my dreams a bit, by not thinking too far ahead. Luckily, the jungle was a massive opportunity that came along and put me in a different space. I’m a big believer in being kind to people, working hard and seeing what tomorrow brings. I do feel like I’ve been lucky along the way too.”Jill never expected to have the career she has now. “Even now I have little pinch-myself moments,” she admits. “When I speak about the podcast – Roy, Gary, Ian and Jamie were the players I looked up to, because there were no females you could watch on TV. They were the reason I wanted to play football. It’s a real full-circle moment that now I’m sitting talking about football with them. Now I feel like we’re friends and we go for food or for a coffee.”In her personal life, Jill is loved-up with Shelly Unitt. They got engaged in 2020 and run coffee shop Boxx2Boxx in Manchester together. Of course Shelly will be there during the challenge cheering on her fiancée, and she’s been a rock for Jill during the gruelling training.‌“She’s been brilliant,” Jill says. “As soon as I get in from a bike ride, she’s like, ‘You’ve got to eat this and fuel up.’ I’ve realised I don’t really like time on my own. When I started going out on the bike for two hours I was getting bored. I tried everything, but in the end, when I’ve been running, Shelly’s been coming out on the bike and we’ve been chatting and it’s so helpful. I need to be around people.”The couple plan to get married, but Jill says, “Life has got so busy that we’ve not got round to planning it. It’s something we’ll definitely do in the future.”Article continues belowFor now, Jill is channeling all her planning skills into her Sport Relief challenge.“This will definitely be one of the hardest, but the proudest things I’ve done, if I can get through it,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to help people, no matter how small or big that could be. This is perfect for that. OK, it might be five days of pain, but it could really make a difference to somebody’s life.”To get behind Jill, track her progress live, sign up for exclusive route updates or donate, visit comicrelief.com/jillscott